New Delhi, September 20: Congress on Sunday criticised Union Home Minister Amit Shah over the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, alleging that the exercise has resulted in large-scale deletion of voters. Congress general secretary in-charge of communications Jairam Ramesh said the Election Commission began the first phase of SIR in Bihar in June 2025, followed by a second phase in November 2025 across nine states and three Union Territories.
According to Ramesh, 7.8 crore names were deleted during the first two phases, amounting to 13% of the pre-SIR electoral roll. He said the third phase began in 16 states and three Union Territories in mid-2026. Citing data from 12 states and two UTs, Ramesh claimed that 6.18 crore names had been deleted from 36.06 crore voters, putting the deletion rate at over 17%.
He further claimed that another 5.43 crore voters had been issued notices seeking additional documents to retain their names on the electoral rolls. Ramesh said this put another 15% of voters at risk of deletion. “Thus, a staggering 32% (or about one in three) of voters have had their names deleted or face risk of deletion,” he said.
Ramesh cited Delhi, Chandigarh, Jharkhand, Uttarakhand, Meghalaya, Maharashtra, Telangana, Karnataka, Haryana, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and Punjab among the states and UTs where he claimed a significant proportion of voters had either been deleted or faced the risk of deletion.
He 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. Ramesh alleged that the SIR process had shifted the burden of verification from the government to citizens, who were being asked to produce documents they may never have been issued.
Calling the exercise a “machine for exclusion”, Ramesh alleged that SIR was a “Shah Instigated Removal” of voters and described it as an “assault on our Constitution”.
Also Read: Delhi SIR – 31.63 Lakh Voters Issued Notices Over Electoral Discrepancies
