Hans News Service New Delhi

Nearly20 to 25 per cent names may be deleted from Delhi's existing electoral rolls during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR), with election officials attributing the estimate to Delhi's highly mobile population, frequent transfers of government employees and people shifting homes without updating their voter registration. A senior official in the office of Delhi chief electoral officer said the figure is only a broad estimate and the actual number would become clear only when the draft electoral rolls are published on August 17.

"Delhi has a very large migratory population. Migrating labourers keep shifting from one address to another -- sometimes in Delhi, sometimes outside. Government employees are posted here, and then move out. There are also new residential clusters.

"That is why there will be a substantial number of deletions in Delhi. But the exact figure will emerge only after the draft rolls are published," the official told PTI on Thursday.While the citywide figure remains an estimate, some booth level officers (BLOs) deployed across Delhi have told PTI that the exercise largely involved tracing voters who no longer live at addresses where they are registered.

In many cases, the voters have not necessarily left Delhi but have moved elsewhere in the city without transferring their enrolment. Deployed in New Delhi assembly constituency's Ansari Nagar area, BLO Manish Meena said his polling booth presents this very challenge.

The booth covers AIIMS residential quarters, servant quarters and seven student hostels, where the electoral rolls change constantly as doctors are transferred or retire, students complete their courses and government accommodation is allotted to new occupants.