Citizens should delete 'duplicate' names ahead of Assembly polls: Election officials

PUNE: The chief electoral office has directed citizens to delete their names if they appear more than once on the state electoral roll. This is an effort to clean the "inflated" voters' list ahead of the assembly polls, which are likely to be held in October, and remove the "absent, shifted and deceased"(ASD) names. Citizens who do not have photo identity cards should also apply for the same ahead of the elections.The Chief Electoral Office in the state has urged citizens to check their names for duplications and other discrepancies and apply for relevant corrections immediately. The officials said approximately 13 lakh names that figure in the ASD list across 36 districts in Maharashra have inflated the electoral roll."The ASD list is an issue. We would want to remove these names. With the online facility available, citizens who could not register as new voters or those who wanted to delete their names because they have shifted out of state should do so immediately," said an election official."If any citizen does not have a photo identity card, he/she should apply for one. We have five months now to finish the process," he added.