Mumbai, Aug. 12 -- Mumbai and Thane are expected to see at least 30% deletion of electors when the draft electoral rolls are published later this month, with Election Commission of India (ECI) officials saying the two Maharashtra cities recorded below state's average enumeration during the ongoing special intensive revision (SIR) exercise. Based on the enumeration figures, EC officials estimate that at least 2.5 million of the 10.36 million electors in Mumbai and over 1.8 million of the 7.45 million electors in Thane could be dropped from the draft electoral rolls. These voters fall under the ASDD (absent, shifted, dead and duplicate) category and were not traced by BLOs when they visited the registered residences of the electors, officials said. "We are in the last leg of the SIR drive and expect the enumeration phase to end on August 17, as per the extended deadline. The overall state percentage of untraceable electors is 15%, with the highest, at 36%, being in Mumbai and Thane," said an official from the Mumbai Collector's Office. "In some districts with a higher rural population, it (untraceable electors) is as low as 2%. This means that many, or more than 30%, of the existing electors are expected to be deleted when the draft rolls are published later this month," the official added. The deletion percentage in the state is expected to be between 12% and 15%, which would mean at least 14.76 million electors, out of a total of 97.85 million as of June 30, could be deleted from the electoral rolls. "After visiting the doorsteps of these electors and not being able to trace them, the BLOs have now been directed to conduct panchnamas so that the electors can be declared untraceable at their given residential addresses. In Thane, the number of untraceable voters is higher because of the high rate of floating population and the difficulties BLOs face in meeting residents, as they travel to Mumbai daily and return home late," said an EC official, also declining to be named. Enumeration has reached 63.08% in Mumbai suburban, 61.33% in Mumbai city and 57.07% in Thane, while the state average is 77.53%. Political parties, however, alleged that BLOs have not made adequate efforts and have started preparing panchnamas. "I have written to the Chief Electoral Officer raising concerns over BLOs not reaching out to many slums and hutments. Given the current situation, over 30% of voters are expected to be deleted from the roll to be published on August 24," said Sandesh Konvilkar, a Mumbai Congress leader. Manohar Parkar, joint CEO, Maharashtra, said: "We have directed the BLOs to make all to reach out so that no eligible elector is left out of the electoral roll."...