Over 95,000, or more than half, of the nearly 1.73 lakh Form-7 applications filed during Uttarakhand’s ongoing SIR of electoral rolls relate to voters whom election officials have marked as “ineligible”, the Chief Electoral Officer’s (CEO) office said on Thursday.According to the CEO’s office, the “ineligible” category comprises voters who either did not furnish the documents sought during the verification process or did not appear for the hearing themselves or through a family member.In such cases, the concerned Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) or Assistant Electoral Registration Officer (AERO) marks the voter as “ineligible” on the Election Commission’s online system, following which Form 7 is automatically generated for deletion, the office said in a statement.Form 7 is used to seek deletion of a name from the electoral roll.The clarification comes as the Election Commission is processing an unusually large number of Form-7 applications in Uttarakhand, with more than 85% of the 1,30,382 applications reported earlier coming from four districts — Udham Singh Nagar, Haridwar, Dehradun and Nainital. The concentration of deletion requests in these largely plain and more populous districts had prompted questions about the reasons behind the geographic pattern in terms of deletions.The Indian Express has earlier reported that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has attributed the concentration principally to population movement and migration, while the Congress has questioned whether the demographic composition of these districts could be a factor. However, election officials have cautioned against drawing conclusions from the number of applications alone, noting that Form-7 figures reflect applications received and can vary depending on how actively electoral rolls are scrutinised.The CEO’s office said Thursday that the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process is being conducted “in accordance with the rules and in a transparent manner” and that regular meetings are being held with recognised political parties at the Assembly constituency, district and state levels.Story continues below this adThe final electoral roll in Uttarakhand will be published on October 3, the CEO’s office said, reiterating the revised schedule for the exercise. Importantly, voters who have been placed in the “ineligible” category will not lose the opportunity to seek inclusion in the electoral roll after the final publication, according to the clarification.Such voters can submit Form 6, along with the prescribed documents, even after the deadline and seek inclusion in the electoral roll before the election, the CEO’s office said.An Award-winning journalist covering the state of Uttarakhand, Vidheesha Kuntamalla has reported on education, policy and social justice. She has broken news and written investigative stories on education, some of which have prompted responses from central universities and government authorities. She uses the Right to Information Act as a reporting tool and enjoys telling people-driven stories through long-form journalism. Vidheesha joined The Indian Express’s Delhi City team in 2023, where she has been part of the education coverage in the newsroom, reporting on policy, institutions, and issues affecting students and communities. Her journalism career began in 2020 as a freelance journalist after she left a career in civil engineering. She covered her home states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, focusing on gender, social justice, and politics. Vidheesha Kuntamalla Qualification, Degrees: Master of Science in Quantity Surveying from Kingston University, London Awards and Recognition: Vidheesha won the Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Award in 2024 for her long-form story on India’s first case of passive euthanasia. ... Read More Tags:Chief Election CommissionUttarakhand