MUMBAI, July 17 -- The digital data entry of Mumbai's Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls has reached a mere 12% even as the one-month deadline to complete the process (July 29) is drawing near. The reasons behind this lag are missing two-decade-old electoral records, confusion over multiple residences of voters, redevelopment-related address changes and an overburdened field staff. While voters are struggling to understand and put together documents dating back 2002 (the last cycle of SIR), Booth Level Officers (BLOs) are overwhelmed by manual paperwork and unavailability of residents, leaving Mumbai well behind rural Maharashtra in digital enumeration. One of the worst affected in this exercise are married women with changed names who have to rely on their parents' electoral records for verification. Swapna Shinde (and others like her), a resident of Pratiksha Nagar, is in a bind as she has been unable to locate the 2002 electoral record of her father, Vaijnath Bhakre, a voter in Beed district. "While I voted for both the 2024 Lok Sabha election and the 2026 BMC election, I still need my father's or mother's records for mapping. If those records cannot be found, I will have to submit documents proving my nationality," said Shinde. Those owning multiple homes are uncertain whether they can retain their names at their old address while registering at a new one. Vikrant Kamerkar, who shifted from Parel to Chembur a few years ago, said even the local BLO could not clarify. "We were asked to bring documents and fill forms for all family members, but there was no clarity on whether our names could be registered at Chembur without deleting the old entries," he said. Large-scale redevelopment across Mumbai has added another layer of complexity. While political parties have urged the Election Commission of India (ECI) to allow residents living in transit accommodation to continue voting from their original constituencies, the proposal to consider the residence which went into redevelopment is under consideration, said an official. Equally fraught are displaced slum dwellers whose houses were demolished, leading them to shift to other areas....