New Delhi: The Congress on Sunday accused the Election Commission’s ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls of putting millions of voters at risk of losing their names from the lists.
The party referred to the exercise as “Shah-Instigated Removal” and alleged that it represented an “assault on our Constitution”.
Congress general secretary in charge of communications Jairam Ramesh said the scale of deletions and notices issued during the third phase indicated that nearly one in three voters covered by the exercise had either already been removed or could face deletion, as reported by The New Indian Express.
“The deletion rate works out to over 17 per cent. An additional 5.43 crore voters have been issued notices demanding additional documentation to have their names retained on the electoral roll. The risk of deletion rate works to another 15 per cent,” Ramesh said in a statement.
6.18 Crore Names Deleted
Ramesh said 6.18 crore voters had been removed from the rolls out of the 36.06 crore electors covered across 12 states and two Union territories in the third phase.
The Congress leader said the first two phases of the revision had already led to the deletion of 7.8 crore names, equivalent to 13 per cent of the electoral rolls before the exercise began. He added that the third phase was launched in 16 states and three Union territories in mid-2026.
“Thus, a staggering 32 per cent (or about one in three) of voters have had their names deleted or face risk of deletion,” Ramesh said.
Figures cited by him showed that the combined share of deleted voters and those facing possible removal was highest in Delhi at 53.73 per cent, followed by Chandigarh at 52.58 per cent and Telangana at 48.90 per cent. The corresponding figures were 39.57 per cent in Jharkhand, 37.5 per cent in Haryana, 35.71 per cent in Uttarakhand, 35.36 per cent in Meghalaya and 33.88 per cent in Maharashtra. The proportions stood at 27.6 per cent in Karnataka, 23.67 per cent in Odisha, 21.17 per cent in Andhra Pradesh and 15.23 per cent in Punjab.
Ramesh said the SIR exercise was placing a heavier burden on poor and marginalised communities. He also alleged that women were being struck off the electoral rolls in greater numbers than men in most large states.
Congress Flags Secrecy In Voter Deletions
Ramesh criticised the Election Commission for withholding, in several states, the lists of voters whose names could be removed from the rolls. He said Delhi made its list public only on September 19, and that too after facing pressure from citizens.
“This is an unusually high proportion that reflects structural flaws in the entire SIR process,” Ramesh said.
He alleged that the revision had made citizens responsible for proving their eligibility by demanding documents that government agencies may never have provided to them.
“A test that the overwhelming majority of citizens cannot pass is just a ‘machine for exclusion’,” he said.
Describing the exercise as “a massive Shah Instigated Removal of voters”, Ramesh said: “It is an assault on our Constitution.” The remark appeared to refer to Union Home Minister Amit Shah.