About 130 million people have been removed from India’s electoral rolls in a mass revision exercise that has sparked protests and allegations of disenfranchisement, particularly affecting Muslim communities. The revision, known as the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), began last year and is currently in its final phase in Telangana, where Hyderabad is the capital.
Mohammed Baba Sharffuddin, a 60-year-old resident of a Muslim neighborhood in Hyderabad, said that 17 members of his extended family and 13 neighbors were deleted from the draft voter lists. Sharffuddin’s family has lived in the same residence since before India gained independence in 1947. According to polling officials, the deletions were made on the basis that those individuals had “permanently shifted” from their addresses, a claim Sharffuddin disputes.
The Election Commission of India says the SIR aims to update the voter lists by removing duplicates, deceased voters, and those who have relocated, to “purify” the rolls ahead of upcoming elections. This edition of the revision is notable for its scale and centralization, covering nearly one billion voters in a database managed with software provided by Tata Consultancy Services.
Critics contend that the process has been rushed and flawed, leading to wrongful removals of eligible voters, many of whom are Muslim. Opposition figures and activists have characterized the deletions as a form of disenfranchisement and have brought legal challenges to the Supreme Court. Demonstrations have occurred frequently in New Delhi, with protesters calling the exercise “vote chori” or vote theft and demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, who has not publicly responded to the controversies in recent weeks.
Two other election commissioners, Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, reportedly raised concerns about the changes to voter rolls, the registration procedures, and the centralization of the digital system. The commission has described these disagreements as part of normal deliberations and stated that final decisions were unanimous.
The requirement for voters to provide proof of citizenship, even if already listed, has added bureaucratic hurdles in a country where standardized identity documentation is often lacking. Some government officials have defended the revisions as necessary to prevent voting by what they describe as “infiltrators,” a term largely used to refer to Muslim immigrants, particularly from neighboring Bangladesh. However, no conclusive evidence has been presented to prove that the revision was politically motivated or that it has affected electoral outcomes.
Political analyst Zainab Sikander described the voter list update as a necessary democratic exercise but said it had been conducted in a hurried manner. The exercise’s timing has been scrutinized, especially given the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) recent electoral victories in states like Bihar and West Bengal and the upcoming national elections in 2029.
In Hyderabad, many await the final voter list expected next month. Syed Aijaz, a 76-year-old rickshaw driver whose name was removed from the draft, expressed feelings of exclusion and loss of citizenship rights. “I feel this is the latest weapon from the BJP to disenfranchise people,” he said. “By taking away our right to vote they are taking away our rights of being Indian. They are making me feel I am not Indian anymore.”
The Election Commission has instructed officials to restore names of eligible voters removed in error as part of the ongoing administrative adjustments. The controversy continues to present a significant political and social challenge ahead of India’s next general elections.