Odisha's electoral roll sees significant deletions without clear district-level pattern

Odisha's electoral roll has shrunk by 2.01 million voters, or 6%, in the draft phase of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise, according to data released by the Election Commission of India. This reduction places Odisha among states with the third-lowest percentage deletion rate after Lakshadweep and Mizoram, with the final draft roll standing at 31.3 million voters.

A notable aspect of Odisha's SIR exercise is the lack of a discernible pattern in deletions at the district level. While most large states show higher deletions in urban districts, possibly due to rural-to-urban migration, Odisha's data does not correlate deletions with the level of urbanisation. Similarly, the deletions do not appear to be linked to socially vulnerable groups, as there is no correlation with the population share of Scheduled Tribes (ST) or Scheduled Castes (SC) in the districts.

The district-wise data reveals that Ganjam recorded the highest number of deletions with 207,624 voters removed, followed by Cuttack (155,166), Mayurbhanj (111,267), Jajpur (105,014), and Balangir (99,258). Conversely, Deogarh, Boudh, Nuapada, Subarnapur, and Jharsuguda experienced the lowest number of deletions.

In terms of percentage deletions, Malkangiri led with 10.2%, followed by Balangir (7.4%), Cuttack (7.1%), Nayagarh (7%), and Ganjam (6.9%). These districts exhibit varied levels of urbanisation, further underscoring the absence of a clear urban-rural correlation in the deletion process. The SIR exercise, a two-stage process involving enumeration and subsequent verification, aims to update electoral rolls, and the findings in Odisha present a unique demographic picture compared to other Indian states.