Chandigarh: The Election Commission of India (ECI) data has revealed that Punjab witnessed a sudden increase in the number of voters in the election year and then decreased after that.
The difference has been found in the commission data about the voters before the 2022 assembly polls and those released before the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Voters Disappear After Polls
The number of voters in Punjab increased before the Lok Sabha elections held on June 1, 2024, last year, and after that, 81,174 voters disappeared. The decrease of more than 80 thousand voters in 8 months shows that about 338 voters are decreasing in Punjab every day. It is also surprising that such a large number of voters are decreasing every day. According to the electoral roll of the ECI, there were 21,461,739 voters in the state on May 14, 2024, which decreased to 21,380,565 on January 7, 2025. The decrease of 81,174 voters in just 8 months is surprising.
Voters Steadily Increasing
This trend is not just for one year. During the 2022 Punjab Assembly elections, the number of voters increased by 329,308, while in 2023, there was a decrease of 82,212 voters. In January 2024, the number of voters was 2,12,32,308, while in May, before the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, there was an increase of 2,29,431 voters, and the total number of voters in Punjab was 2,14,61,739. This year, this figure has come down to 2,13,80,565 voters.
Why The Fluctuation?
According to Punjab Chief Electoral Officer Sibin C, before any election, the commission runs a special awareness campaign for the improvement of voters. Under this campaign, people are particularly interested in registering their names in the voter list. There can be many reasons for removing names from the voter list. Voters also get their names removed from the voter list by filling out Form 7 due to the death of the voter or shifting to other states.
Only the booth-level officials (BLOs) investigate this, while it is the job of the BLO to improve the voter list. If there is any complaint regarding the voter list, then only the booth-level officials investigate it.
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