Goa, Oct. 2 -- The Election Commission of India has directed authorities in 20 states and Union Territories where the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls has been completed to launch a special drive to enrol eligible voters who may have been left out of the electoral rolls.

The directive comes after more than 13 crore names were removed from draft electoral rolls across 30 states and Union Territories during the SIR exercise. The figure refers to deletions from the draft rolls and does not, by itself, indicate that all those voters were wrongly excluded.

The Commission issued the instructions in writing on September 29 and reiterated them during a video conference with state Chief Electoral Officers on Thursday. The driv...