New Delhi, Nov 1 (IANS): Since January 2021, 3,19,222 voters' names have been deleted from Delhi's electoral rolls, Delhi Chief Electoral Officer Ranbir Singh said at a press conference here on Monday.

"To ensure an error-free, accurate and authentic electoral roll, Election Commission under its demographically similar entries software, deletes duplicate entries, dead voters and permanently shifted voters from its electoral list annually. This time since January 15, a total of 8,737 duplicate entries, 59,423 dead voters and 2,51,062 permanently shifted voters' names have been removed from the list," Ranbir Singh said.

"On the other hand, 2,16,702 names were added in the electoral rolls. This figure of addition and deletion keeps fluctuating. People are usually enthusiastic before elections and that's why the number increases before polls. However, it decreases post elections and this time the figure further declined due to the Covid-19 pandemic," he added.

Since January 15, 2021 till date, the list of third gender has recorded an increase with 35 new names, now standing at 958.

The chief electoral officer also announced the special summary revision of Delhi's electoral rolls with January 1, 2022, as the qualifying date began on Monday. The exercise will take place on November 30.

"We have published draft electoral rolls for the upcoming 2022 Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) elections. The poll authorities will carry out the exercise as a month-long festival for the electorates as 'voter utsav' during which, anyone who would be 18 years or more on or before January 1, 2022, will be eligible to enroll as a voter," Singh said.

The final roll will be published on January 5, 2022.

He has asked voters to download Voter Helpline App (VHA) where they can register to be added to the electoral roll or fill out forms for making corrections.

As per Delhi's last electoral roll that was published early this year, the city had 1.48 crore as eligible voters.