Congress Calls SIR ‘Shah Instigated Removal’, Claims One In Three Voters At Risk

The Congress on Sunday intensified its attack on the Election Commission’s ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, alleging that the exercise has resulted in large-scale deletions and placed millions of genuine voters at risk of losing their names from the voter lists.

Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh claimed that in the ongoing third phase, 6.18 crore voters out of 36.06 crore examined across 12 states and two Union Territories had been deleted. He said another 5.43 crore voters had been issued notices seeking additional documents to retain their names.

According to Ramesh, this means more than 32 per cent of voters, roughly one in three, have either been deleted or face the risk of deletion in the areas covered by the figures cited by him.

He highlighted Delhi, where the combined figure of deleted voters and those facing verification was 53.73 per cent, followed by Chandigarh at 52.58 per cent and Telangana at 48.90 per cent. Jharkhand, Haryana, Uttarakhand, Meghalaya and Maharashtra were also among the states where the figure crossed 30 per cent, he said.

Ramesh 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 rolls. He also criticised the requirement for voters to provide additional documents, arguing that the burden of proving eligibility had been shifted from the administration to citizens.

The Congress leader questioned why such a large number of voters were being asked to undergo further verification after millions had already been deleted. He also raised concerns over transparency, pointing to the delayed publication of lists of voters facing possible deletion in some states.

In a political attack on the Centre, Ramesh dubbed SIR “Shah Instigated Removal”, referring to Union Home Minister Amit Shah, and called it an “assault on the Constitution”.

The Election Commission has maintained that the revision is aimed at removing ineligible and duplicate entries while ensuring that all eligible citizens are included in the electoral rolls.