Over 40 lakh Gujarat voters found permanently shifted on electoral rolls

The ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Gujarat has identified more than 40 lakh voters who have permanently shifted from the addresses recorded in the existing voter lists, officials said. Nearly half of these voters are from Ahmedabad and Surat districts, highlighting significant population mobility in the state’s most industrialised regions.The Election Commission of India (ECI) is set to publish the draft electoral rolls on December 19. Overall, 73.94 lakh voters’ names are likely to be removed from the rolls due to reasons such as death, permanent relocation, absence, and duplication. Of these, voters classified as permanently shifted account for about 54%.
Ahmedabad and Surat alone reported 8.65 lakh and 8.62 lakh permanently shifted voters, respectively, together making up 43% of this category. Other districts showing high outward movement include Vadodara, Rajkot, Valsad, Kutch, Bhavnagar, Gandhinagar, Banaskantha, and Mehsana—areas marked by higher industrial activity and a sizeable migrant workforce.Officials involved in the SIR exercise attributed the trend largely to reverse migration from industrial hubs like Ahmedabad and Surat, where migrant workers had settled for employment. Changes of address within constituencies have also contributed to the numbers. Ahmedabad collector and district election officer Sujith Kumar said that while the highest migration has been recorded from the district, it is still unclear whether the movement has been within Gujarat or outside the state. “At this stage, it is difficult to determine the exact nature of the migration,” he said.
Assembly constituency-wise data also reflects this pattern. All top ten constituencies with the highest outward movement of voters are from Ahmedabad and Surat. According to figures from the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Choryasi, Kamrej, Limbayat, Udhna, Amraiwadi, Vejalpur, Varachha Road, Olpad, Katargam, and Ghatlodia feature among the constituencies with the maximum voter outflow.The findings echo earlier trends noted during the Covid-19 pandemic. A 2020 study by the Mahatma Gandhi Labour Institute (MGLI) had pointed out large-scale reverse migration, estimating that nearly 14.97 lakh migrant workers returned to their home states during the lockdowns. Surat and Ahmedabad recorded the highest outward movement then as well. Officials said many migrant workers who left during the pandemic have not returned to the addresses mentioned on their voter cards.
An official from the Ahmedabad collectorate noted that booth-level officers (BLOs) were often informed by neighbours that workers from other states who had gone back during Covid-19 did not return. The official added that short-term contract workers from northern states also frequently move in and out of the district after completing assignments at industrial units and construction sites.State Chief Electoral Officer Hareet Shukla said there is also a possibility that several relocated voters have shifted within the same constituency or to another constituency in Gujarat but have not updated their EPIC details.Interestingly, Gujarat’s electorate had expanded by nearly 49 lakh voters between the 2017 and 2022 Assembly elections. Official data shows the voter count rose from 4.35 crore in 2017 to 4.84 crore in 2022, an increase of about 11%.
The enumeration phase of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), which continued until December 11, has reported significant revisions in Gujarat’s electoral rolls. Besides the permanently shifted voters, the SIR has also identified around 16 lakh deceased voters and more than 23 lakh voters who have relocated, according to a statement from the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO).Following the completion of enumeration, the digitisation of returned forms is currently underway. The process has been completed 100% in four Assembly constituencies—Dhanera and Tharad in Banaskantha district, Limkheda in Dahod, and Dhoraji in Rajkot.At the district level, Dang is leading the digitisation drive with 93.55% of the work completed. It is followed by Gir Somnath (89.62%), Morbi (89.07%), Sabarkantha (89%), Banaskantha (88.96%), Mahisagar (88.91%), Chhota Udepura (88.81%), Panchmahal (87.88%), Aravalli (87.67%), and Surendranagar (87.45%).

(State Correspondent)