# India's Electoral Roll Revision Sparks Disenfranchisement Claims

> India's Election Commission launched a voter roll revision in June 2025, leading to allegations of 130 to 133 million marginalized voters systematically removed from electoral lists.

By PrimaryBrief newsroom · Published 2026-10-24T11:16:21.180544Z
Canonical: https://primarybrief.com/article/india-s-electoral-roll-revision-sparks-disenfranchisement-claims-67aad7b0

India's Election Commission (ECI) initiated a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar in June 2025, an exercise critics allege has systematically removed an estimated 130 to 133 million marginalized voters from the rolls [2][6][10][13][16]. This revision process has led to a calculated shortfall of approximately 140 million eligible adult voters missing from the final electoral rolls compared to the total adult population [7][12].

This significant reduction in registered voters could impact the democratic process in India, raising concerns about disenfranchisement, particularly among vulnerable communities, and the integrity of future elections.

## What the Records Show
The Election Commission of India began its Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls in Bihar on June 24, 2025, as the first phase of a nationwide exercise [8][16][18]. The ECI stated its objective was to ensure accurate and up-to-date rolls, free of ineligible or duplicate entries, while ensuring no eligible elector was excluded [8]. Following the conclusion of the SIR exercise in 30 states, Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar has been a central figure in the resulting controversy [13].

An estimated 130 million names were flagged for removal during this revision, with one elections specialist, Yogendra Yadav, putting the estimate at 130 million deleted names [10]. Another report indicates approximately 133 million names were flagged for removal [6]. Categories for deletion included 30.1 million voters listed as absent or untraceable, 63 million as permanently shifted, 28 million as deceased, 10.2 million as duplicate, and 2.6 million under other reasons, totaling 133.9 million voters [17].

Critics contend that the SIR disproportionately affects Muslims, Dalits, migrant workers, and women, who are generally less likely to support the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) [2][3][6]. Reports suggest that protests, including mass detentions in New Delhi, have occurred against the exercise, with some calling for CEC Kumar's resignation [3][4]. The Supreme Court upheld the ECI's power to conduct the SIR but clarified that the ECI is not the ultimate authority for citizenship determination and must refer cases of doubtful citizenship to the competent authority under the Citizenship Act, 1955 [14][22][24]. The Court noted that citizenship is a prerequisite for electoral enrollment [23].

## Internal Dissent and ECI Response
Internal reports allege dissent within the ECI, with Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi reportedly raising objections at least 14 times over 10 months regarding decisions made by Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar related to the SIR process [11]. The ECI, however, rejected these reports, stating that its decisions were unanimous and that individual deliberations do not represent the final stance of the poll panel [15][21]. The ECI maintained that the SIR was a necessary process for weeding out deceased, duplicate, and ineligible voters [21]. In Bihar, for instance, the revision identified approximately 2.2 million deceased voters and 700,000 duplicate entries, alongside the addition of about 2.15 million new voters [19].

## What We Could Not Confirm
PrimaryBrief could not confirm the specific content or details of the alleged 14 instances of dissent from Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi against CEC Gyanesh Kumar's decisions [11]. We also could not confirm the exact procedures used across all 30 states for categorizing individuals as "absent/untraceable," "permanently shifted," or "other" during the revision process [13][17].

## Evidence cited
1. Time.com Highlights India's Mass Voter Deletions as 'Institutional Crisis' (Time) — https://www.time.com/
2. The Guardian Reports on 130 Million Indian Voter Deletions Amidst Disenfranchisement Allegations (The Guardian) — https://www.theguardian.com/
3. Al Jazeera Reports on Mass Detentions and Disproportionate Disenfranchisement in India's Voter Revision (Al Jazeera) — https://www.aljazeera.com/
4. IRInsider Reports on Protests and Calls for CEC Kumar's Resignation Over Unprecedented Voter Deletions (IRInsider) — https://www.irinsider.com/
5. India’s Election Commission Faces Allegations of Mass Voter Deletions - Delmarva Public Media (Delmarva Public Media) — https://www.delmarvapublicmedia.org/
6. India: Millions of Muslims and Dalits ‘disenfranchised’ by mass voter deletions (Middle East Eye) — https://www.middleeasteye.net/
7. Jean Drèze & Yogendra Yadav on Election Commission's missing voters: A response to Surjit Bhalla - The Indian Express (indianexpress.com) — https://indianexpress.com/
8. ECI's Special Intensive Revision of Electoral Rolls Being Conducted in Phases with Multiple Safeguards to Protect Eligible Voters (pib.gov.in) — https://pib.gov.in/
9. Supreme Court issues notice to ECI on challenge to Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls - Supreme Court Observer (scobserver.in) — https://scobserver.in/
10. India’s Election Commission Faces Allegations of Mass Voter Deletions - Delmarva Public Media (Delmarva Public Media) — https://delmarvapublicmedia.org/
11. 2026 Indian electoral controversy - Wikipedia (wikipedia.org) — https://wikipedia.org/
12. The Big Story: The Election Commission is in the eye of a storm over the Special Intensive Revision. Why it matters. - The Aspirant News (theaspirantnews.com) — https://theaspirantnews.com/
13. Decoding the 13 Crore Deletions From India's Electoral Rolls - The Dossier (thedossier.in) — https://thedossier.in/
14. Supreme Court Upholds ECI's Power To Conduct SIR | Must Forward Names Of Doubtful Citizenship | The Wire (youtube.com) — https://youtube.com/
15. SIR Dissent Row Highlights: EC rejects report, says decisions were unanimous - India Today (indiatoday.in) — https://indiatoday.in/
16. SIR: State-wise break-up of voter deletion and addition during electoral rolls revision - Business Standard (business-standard.com) — https://business-standard.com/
17. All of the eight past SIRs upped the electorate. Why this is the only time voter numbers shrank - ThePrint (theprint.in) — https://theprint.in/
18. What is the controversy surrounding India’s Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls? - The Hindu (thehindu.com) — https://thehindu.com/
19. 124 former bureaucrats defend EC, Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls - IndiaTimes (indiatimes.com) — https://indiatimes.com/
20. Former civil servants defend ECI, SIR of electoral rolls - Big News Network (bignewsnetwork.com) — https://bignewsnetwork.com/
21. EC defends SIR, says weeding out deceased, duplicate, ineligible voters - Tribune India (tribuneindia.com) — https://tribuneindia.com/
22. Deletion From Electoral Roll Will Not Automatically Result In Loss Of Citizenship, ECI Must Refer 'Doubtful Citizenship' Cases To Centre: Supreme Court - Live Law (livelaw.in) — https://livelaw.in/
23. Inside the ECI’s Voter Roll Clean-Up - Open The Magazine (openthemagazine.com) — https://openthemagazine.com/
24. No Foreigners Found: Why Amit Shah’s Infiltrator Claim Against Rahul Gandhi’s SIR Protest Is a Lie - The Reporters' Collective (reporters-collective.in) — https://reporters-collective.in/
25. Disenfranchisement claims exaggerated, ECI to SC (dailypioneer.com) — https://dailypioneer.com/
26. EC defends SIR in SC, calls allegations 'highly exaggerated, speculative' (rediff.com) — https://rediff.com/
27. EC defends SIR in SC, calls allegations 'highly exaggerated, speculative' (economictimes.com) — https://economictimes.com/