Pune: With the month-long Ashadhi Wari set to coincide with the Election Commission’s door-to-door voter verification exercise, political parties and sections of the administration are increasingly sceptical about whether the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls can be completed within the timeline from June 29 to July 29.The Congress has urged the Election Commission of India (ECI) to extend the deadline for submitting the forms by a month, arguing that lakhs of warkaris undertake the annual pilgrimage to Pandharpur and the monsoon could disrupt the exercise and leave eligible voters uncovered.State Congress president Harshvardhan Sapkal told TOI that while the ECI had turned down the party’s request to defer the exercise, it should at least extend the deadline for completing the verification from the current July 29 to August 30.“The Ashadhi Wari takes place this month and lakhs of devotees will be away from their homes and may not be able to submit their SIR forms. BLOs will have to make repeated visits, but many families will remain unavailable during this period. Instead of restricting the exercise to June 30-July 29, the ECI should extend it until Aug 30 so that these voters are not left out,” Sapkal said.The state has nearly 9.78 crore electors who should be given additional time for an exercise of this scale, he said. “This revision is being undertaken after many years and should not be carried out with undue haste. If the objective is to ensure a clean and accurate electoral roll, every effort must be made to include all eligible voters,” Sapkal added.He urged Maharashtra’s Chief Electoral Officer to seek additional time from the ECI for disposing of claims and objections, saying that the process would overlap with the festive season, making it difficult for many citizens to attend hearings. Sapkal said Uttar Pradesh was allowed four extensions and it should not be difficult for the state to get one too.According to the Congress, lakhs of devotees from more than 20 districts in western Maharashtra, Marathwada and Vidarbha will be away from home during the period when booth-level officers (BLOs) are scheduled to distribute and collect enumeration forms. The party has also cited the likelihood of heavy monsoon in July, particularly across Mumbai Metropolitan Region, Konkan, Pune and Satara, as another factor that could affect field verification.Senior district administration officials flagged operational difficulties in completing the exercise within the timeline. The wari begins next week with Ashadhi Ekadashi on July 25 and the current SIR schedule ends on July 29.Field staff are expected to encounter a large number of locked households during the final phase of enumeration. The officials also said that an extension or district-specific flexibility may be required to ensure complete coverage.BLOs, too, have expressed concern that in several affected districts, repeated visits may still not be sufficient to cover all households. They have suggested that special relaxations or extensions in regions across the state’s 36 districts where people are away for wari may be necessary to ensure that no eligible voter is missed during the exercise.Senior election officials said representations will be forwarded to ECI. They added that it is unlikely that entire families would be away during BLO visits and said field staff can revisit households if required. The commission may consider extending timelines if necessary to ensure full coverage of eligible electors and accuracy of the rolls.
