As many as 2,01,00,727 voters in Punjab will be eligible to exercise their franchise in the upcoming Punjab Vidhan Sabha elections, scheduled to be held early next year. These include 1,03,76,026 male voters, 97,24,195 female voters and 506 third-gender voters.The final electoral rolls following the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise were published on Monday. A total of 7.06 lakh voters have been added to Punjab’s electoral rolls after more than 20 lakh names were deleted from the draft rolls published earlier this year.This means that against the pre SIR voters number of 2,14,61,043, the total number of voters now remain at 2,01,00727. Initially, when the draft electoral rolls were published in August, as many as 20,66,608 voters were deleted. The total voters in Punjab were then pegged at 1,93,94,435.Talking to The Tribune, Anindita Mitra, Chief Electoral Officer, Punjab, said the 6.3 per cent reduction in the voter list was due to deaths, voters permanently shifting out of the state, voters being found absent at their given addresses during the previous SIR survey in 2003, or duplication of votes.“We undertook an extensive exercise to ensure a smooth SIR of electoral rolls. As many as 7,97,263 new voters have been added, which include both young first time voters and women voters,” she said. The final electoral rolls have been updated on the website of the Election Commission of India and were also shared by the CEO with representatives of all seven registered and recognised political parties in the state.It is learnt that when the SIR was started, there were 12.80 lakh unmapped voters (those whose names could not be matched with the 2003 electoral rolls, when the last SIR was conducted) and there were 22 lakh voters with some discrepancies.“We issued notices to 34 lakh voters, heard them and rectified the errors. The Block Level Assistants (BLAs) appointed by all political parties were asked for help and they helped us in verification of all legible voters. The death certificates of all those found dead have been taken and separate lists of duplicate voters have been made, so that there is complete transparency,” said CEO Mitra.