Speed Up Registration of New and Young Eligible Voters: K. Ravi Kumar
Ranchi, August 30, 2026: Jharkhand Chief Electoral Officer K. Ravi Kumar has directed all District Election Officers to accelerate the process of enrolling new and young eligible Indian citizens in the electoral roll.
He said that following the publication of the draft electoral roll on August 5, 2026, under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), applications are being received from eligible new voters through Form 6 and the prescribed declaration form, both online and offline.
The Chief Electoral Officer said that October 1, 2026, has been fixed as the qualifying date. All eligible Indian citizens who have attained or will attain the age of 18 years by this date must be ensured registration in the electoral roll.
Applications for registration of new voters under the SIR through Form 6 will be accepted only until September 15, 2026.
A polling station-wise review revealed that 6,722 polling stations across Jharkhand have not received a single Form 6 application so far. These include 1,209 polling stations in Ranchi, 592 in Palamu, 572 in Hazaribagh, 416 in Giridih and 392 in Dhanbad.
Similarly, several polling stations have received only 1 to 5 Form 6 applications. Dhanbad has 1,243 such polling stations, followed by Giridih with 1,072, Ranchi with 981, Palamu with 936 and Hazaribagh with 814.
Taking serious note of the situation, K. Ravi Kumar directed the District Election Officers of these districts to conduct a special review of the concerned polling stations.
He instructed Booth Level Officers (BLOs) to visit households under the Home-to-Roll verification campaign and ensure that no new or young eligible Indian citizen is left out of the voter registration process.
He also directed officials to conduct special awareness campaigns in schools and colleges and encourage eligible young citizens to apply for voter registration through ECINET.
The Chief Electoral Officer further instructed officials to ensure the timely digitization and processing of all Form 6 applications and declaration forms in accordance with the prescribed rules.
He directed all District Election Officers to regularly review the progress and give the highest priority to registering every eligible citizen within the stipulated deadline.
K. Ravi Kumar said that registration in the electoral roll prepared under the Special Intensive Revision is extremely important for the future, and records related to the process will be preserved as permanent documents.
