Kamal Ghorui
AHMEDABAD: Gujarat’s electoral strength contracted 13.4% to 4.4 crore voters on completion of a special intensive revision (SIR) that saw 77 lakh-odd names being deleted from the 2025 rolls and 9.5 lakh new electors getting added to the final list published Tuesday. The double-digit percentage decline caps two rounds of scrutiny, starting with 73.7 lakh deletions when the draft rolls were published last Dec after updating mortality records, migration data and incorrect registrations. Another 3.9 lakh names were removed before the final rolls were put out. Between the publication of the draft and final rolls, the electorate expanded 1.3%, a large section of them first-time voters. Around 40 lakh voters in the unrevised 2025 rolls were found to have permanently shifted, 18 lakh were dead, 9.8 lakh couldn’t be traced to their registered addresses, and 3.8 lakh had duplicate voter cards.Another 1.9 lakh voters’ names in Gujarat were omitted for other reasons. Based on objections and further verification after the draft rolls were published, another 3.9 lakh names were deleted from the rolls.At 49.1 lakh, Ahmedabad district has most voters in GujaratAhmedabad topped the state with 49.1 lakh voters in the final rolls, up from 48 lakh in the draft list. The district also recorded the highest number of additions at 1.5 lakh new electors. In percentage terms, Dang registered the highest proportional increase at 2.15%, although its total voter base stands at 1.9 lakh. Other districts with notable percentage growth were Porbandar (2.1%), Jamnagar (2%), Botad (1.9%), Chhota Udepur (1.9%) and Gandhinagar (1.8%).Surat, Vadodara and Rajkot reported substantial additions, reflecting migration patterns and youth enrolment. Surat added 1 lakh-odd voters while removing 85,734 names, the highest among cities.
