SIR: Single Jharkhand Assembly Constituency Accounts for Over a Third of Voter Deletion Requests

Of the 13,443 Form 7 submitted for deletion of names, 4,790 pertain to the Chatra assembly seat in Chatra district, roughly 36% of the state's total.

The Wire Staff

Of the 13,443 Form 7 submitted for deletion of names, 4,790 pertain to the Chatra assembly seat in Chatra district, roughly 36% of the state's total.

sir single jharkhand assembly constituency accounts for over a third of voter deletion requests

Representational image: Booth Level Officers (BLOs) verify voter details during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, in Ranchi, Jharkhand on June 30, 2026. Photo: PTI.

New Delhi: About one in every three requests to remove names from Jharkhand's electoral roll has come from just one assembly constituency, data released on Thursday (October 1) by the state's chief electoral officer (CEO) revealed. In all, the poll body has received around 13,000 such applications in the state.

The Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise in Jharkhand started on June 30. Officials have so far identified 4.36 million entries as having logical discrepancies. The hearings on these cases will be held till October 12, as per the Election Commission (EC) notification. The window for filing claims, objections and requests for additions or deletions shut on September 30, and the final electoral roll is due on October 19, Hindustan Times's Vishal Kant reported.

Of the 13,443 Form 7 submitted for deletion of names, 4,790 pertain to the Chatra assembly seat in Chatra district, roughly 36% of the state's total. The constituency is represented by Janardhan Paswan of the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) (LJP-RV), who won the 2024 assembly election by a margin of more than 18,000 votes.

In only two other districts, more than thousand Form 7 applications were submitted – West Singhbhum with 1,906 and Deoghar with 1,099.

Officials see nothing unusual

CEO K. Ravi Kumar said the Chatra figures were cross-checked with the district administration, which found nothing irregular. He added that other constituencies are likely to see more Form 7 filings as verification continues.

"It has been verified. There has been no case of bulk applications beyond the prescribed limit. The process is designed so that more Form 7 applications will be generated. Many applications received under Form 8, which are for shifting and rationalisation of booths, would consequently generate automated form 7 entries. Even when shifting or changing a booth, the name must be deleted from the existing booth, which can only be done through Form 7 entries," Kumar was quoted as saying by HT.

Meanwhile, a Congress delegation headed by the party's media co-incharge Kishore Nath Shahdeo called on Kumar earlier this week.

"We had submitted a memorandum that included a few issues including the one related to the Chatra assembly seat. We sought clarification transparently. We were informed that a major reason for the big jump was due to applications for a change of booth," said Shahdeo.

The Jharkhand CEO has also written to the EC seeking more time for issuing notices, completing verification and publishing the revised roll.

For our full coverage on the SIR and the issues it has brought to citizens, click here.

This article went live on October second, two thousand twenty six, at twenty-three minutes past four in the afternoon.

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