Draft voter lists released for the third phase of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) reveal that 6.15 crore names have been removed from the voter rolls across 17 states and union territories. While these figures are likely to change once the final voter lists are published, the draft rolls reveal that the five states with the most number of total deletions have been ones where assembly elections were held in the last three years. These are Maharashtra (2024), Karnataka (2023), Telangana (2023), Delhi (2025), and Andhra Pradesh (2024).
In terms of highest percentage of deletion too, the top five states have had assembly elections in the last three years. These are Delhi with the highest deletion rate (32.78%), followed by Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu (29.65%), Telangana (21.69%), Maharashtra (21.14%), Karnataka(19.48%), Arunachal Pradesh (19.09%). Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, while accounting for the second highest percentage of deletions, does not elect a state assembly as it is a union territory (merged into a single Lok Sabha seat in 2020), but it voted in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
The deletions in Maharashtra (the highest in absolute terms) amount to about one-third of the total electors in 2024. Karnataka, which comes second, has recorded deletions to the scale of about half of the electors who voted in 2023. Telangana which comes third and had also voted in the same year has recorded deletions amounting to just less than one-third of those who voted in that election.
The scale of deletions has again raised questions about the legitimacy of the electoral rolls which existed prior to the SIR exercise. If such large-scale ‘ineligible’ voters existed, how were they eligible to vote in recent elections to pick governments who are now in power?
“Electoral rolls do not become defective in a day. This once again shows that the SIR has raised more questions than it has answered. There has been a total lack of transparency on deletions as well as inclusions. Bogus voters do not come in one day, yet they appear to have voted in the elections conducted not so long ago,” said former chief election commissioner S.Y. Quraishi.
The third phase of the SIR was conducted across 16 states and 3 union territories including Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, Haryana, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, NCT of Delhi, Odisha, Punjab, Sikkim, Tripura, Telangana, Uttarakhand. Of these, draft lists of Nagaland and Tripura are yet to be published. Of the 17 states and union territories where draft lists have already been published, a total of 6,15,07,245 names have been removed.
While all of those who have been deleted may not have voted in the last assembly elections, the scale of the deletions become apparent by considering the number of electors who voted in these elections. For instance, with 2.06 crore names removed, Maharashtra has recorded the highest number of total deletions. The state held assembly elections in 2024 in which 6.41 crore electors voted according to ECI voter turnout data. The deletions amount to just less than one-third of the total electors in 2024.
In Karnataka which recorded the second highest number of deletions with 1.07 crore registered names removed, the deletions amount to about half of the electors who voted in 2023, when the voter turnout was 3.88 crore.
This story was originally published in thewire.in. Read the full story here.