SIR Deletes 61.5M Names From Voter Rolls Across 17 States Including Panjab

September

2026

The Election Commission’s (EC) Special Intensive Revision (SIR) has been mired in fresh controversy as draft electoral rolls are prepared. SIR—a large-scale revision exercise supposed to clean the electoral rolls by removing duplicate entries and those who have migrated or died has turned into a nightmare for many, as long-serving diplomats, journalists, and members of civil society are being asked to produce document after document to prove their citizenship. An estimated 133.7M names have been deleted across India from draft electoral rolls prepared over the 2025–26. In poll-bound Panjab, an estimated 200K names have been deleted from the draft roll, flagging concerns over the voting capacity of the electorate. Chandigarh Member of Parliament Manish Tewari said the number of electors in the city has fallen by more than 50% and wrote to the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Chandigarh to demand full transparency in the exercise. Across India, draft voter lists released for the third phase reveal that 61.5M names have been removed from the voter rolls across 17 states and union territories, including Panjab. While these figures are likely to change once the final voter lists are published, the five states with the most total deletions (highest deletion rate in Delhi at 32.78%) have been ones where assembly elections were held in the last three years. The scale of deletions has again raised questions about the legitimacy of the electoral rolls that existed before 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? In Panjab, the absence of Member of Parliament Raghav Chadha’s name triggered a political storm, with Chadha alleging the deletion as a ‘political vendetta’ by the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). AAP countered that the SIR is conducted by the EC and the state government has ‘no role’. His name appears in the ASDD (absent, shifted, deceased, and duplicate) list. But deletion affects more than voting prospects as is evident in West Bengal, where the High Court is petitioned daily by individuals who plead that the deletion of their names is affecting career and travel prospects. The court is now finding it tough to trace the physical files corresponding to every case. Meanwhile, the population census will be carried out in five states, including Panjab from 1 Dec 2026–4 Jan 2027 (earlier coverage)