New Delhi, 01 September—Publication of draft list in Maharashtra and Delhi after Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls resulting in possible denial to 47 lakhs and 2.07 crore citizens respectively from exercising their voting rights has come under sharp attack from Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi and former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal.
While Kejriwal questioned the omission of nearly a third of Delhi’s pre-SIR electorate, Rahul Gandhi accused the BJP and the Election Commission (which he called the “Vote Theft Commission”) of working towards the same objective: securing a BJP victory “at any cost” and undermining Indian democracy.
Referring to Maharashtra’s draft electoral roll, Rahul Gandhi said 2.07 crore voters had been left out, describing the figure as “every fifth voter”. He compared the latest draft with the rolls used for the 2024 Lok Sabha and Assembly elections.
“Lok Sabha 2024: 9.29 crore; Vidhan Sabha 2024: 9.7 crore; SIR 2026: 7.78 crore. Which list was correct?” he asked in a post on X.
Maharashtra’s draft roll, also released on Monday, recorded 78.86 per cent enumeration, with more than 2 crore voters left out. The Congress leader alleged that the sharp fall in the number of voters raised questions about the exercise.
Citing the experience of Bengal SIR, the 56-year-old leader said that after the tribunal’s hearings, almost 91 per cent of the names deleted from the draft list were reinstated.
“That means 9 out of every 10 names were wrongly deleted and added back only after the election. I said it then, and I say it today: This was vote theft,” his post claimed.
Turning to Delhi, Kejriwal said 47 lakh names were missing from a voter population of around 1.5 crore which means almost 50 percent voters not participating in the elections.
“The Government of India is unnecessarily worried about the population. Through SIR, the Election Commission will reduce our country’s population from 140 crore to 50 crore,” the former Delhi chief minister said in a post on X.
Before the SIR began, Delhi had about 1.45 crore voters; however, the draft roll contains about 97.54 lakh names, leaving 47.7 lakh, or nearly a third of the earlier electorate, out at this stage.
The Election Commission marked 29.86 per cent of Delhi’s pre-SIR voters as “absent/permanently shifted/others”, while 1.95 per cent were marked deceased and 0.98 per cent as enrolled elsewhere.
Last week, the chief ministers of Karnataka and Telangana sought more time for the exercise, warning that eligible voters could otherwise be excluded due to low enumeration rates, documentation problems, or insufficient time to respond.
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