New Delhi, September 20, 2026 (Yes Punjab News)
The Congress on Sunday alleged that the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls was leading to large-scale deletion of voters, with party General Secretary Jairam Ramesh describing the exercise as a “Shah-instigated removal” of voters and alleging that it amounted to an “assault on the Constitution”.
The Election Commission has launched the third phase of SIR across 16 states and three Union Territories, covering more than 36.73 crore electors. The exercise involves house-to-house verification and updating of electoral rolls.
Ramesh claimed that nearly one in three voters covered by the third phase had either been deleted from the electoral rolls or faced the possibility of deletion.
He said 6.18 crore voters out of the 36.06 crore covered in 12 states and two Union Territories had been deleted, according to figures cited by him. He further claimed that another 5.43 crore voters had received notices seeking additional documentation to retain their names on the electoral rolls.
“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.
He claimed that the first two phases of SIR had resulted in the deletion of 7.8 crore names, with the deletion rate standing at 13 per cent of the electoral rolls before the revision exercise.
According to the Election Commission, Phase III of the SIR has been ordered in 16 states and three Union Territories, with more than 3.94 lakh Booth Level Officers conducting house-to-house verification of over 36.73 crore electors.
Ramesh said the combined proportion of voters who had either been deleted or faced the risk of deletion stood at about 32 per cent, or roughly one in three voters.
According to figures cited by the Congress leader, the combined proportion was 53.73 per cent in Delhi, 52.58 per cent in Chandigarh, 48.90 per cent in Telangana, 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 figures were 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, he said.
Ramesh also alleged that the deletions were disproportionately affecting economically and socially disadvantaged sections and claimed that, in most major states, more women than men had been removed from the electoral rolls.
He criticised the Election Commission for not making lists of voters facing possible deletion public in all states. Ramesh said Delhi published its list on September 19 following public pressure.
“This is an unusually high proportion that reflects structural flaws in the entire SIR process,” he said.
The Congress leader also alleged that the SIR process had shifted the responsibility of proving eligibility onto citizens by requiring them to submit additional documents. He questioned whether the state had provided such documents to citizens in the first place.
“A test that the overwhelming majority of citizens cannot pass is just a ‘machine for exclusion’,” Ramesh said.
Referring to the documentation requirements, Ramesh alleged that the process could create difficulties for citizens seeking to retain their names on electoral rolls.
“SIR is actually a massive Shah Instigated Removal of voters. It is an assault on our Constitution,” he said, referring to Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
The third phase of the SIR covers Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Haryana, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Odisha, Punjab, Sikkim, Tripura, Telangana and Uttarakhand, along with Delhi, Chandigarh and Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu.
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