The New Indian Express ·
The Delhi SIR shake-up: 47.56 lakh names out, 97.53 lakh voters in draft rolls
The Election Commission completed the most arduous part of the SIR exercise in Delhi last week, when it released draft electoral rolls with 47.56 lakh deletions. The mammoth exercise drew upon the large pool of the city’s government teachers and finished it in record time. The City Team explains the significance and size of the process and details next steps for those kept out of the list
Constitutionally, every citizen who is not less than 18 years of age shall be entitled to be registered as a voter. The Constitution also vests the power to prepare the electoral rolls to conduct the elections to the Election Commission of India (ECI) as per the provisions of the Representation of the People Act, 1950 (RP Act).
Each state has a Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), while each district has a district election officer (DEO). For every Assembly constituency, an electoral registration officer (ERO) is appointed, along with assistant electoral registration officers (AEROs) to assist the ERO.
These officers are designated or nominated by the ECI in consultation with state governments. The booth level officers (BLOs) are appointed at the local level to assist in the preparation, updating and revision of electoral rolls.
A summary revision of the electoral rolls is usually carried out before every general election to the Lok Sabha or a state Legislative Assembly, as well as before bye-elections. The ECI is also empowered to order a special revision of electoral rolls (SIR) at any time, provided the reasons for doing so are recorded.
The election commission this time has noted in its order dated June 24, 2025, that large-scale additions and deletions to the electoral rolls over the last 20 years due to rapid urbanisation and migration have increased the possibility of duplicate entries. Since it is constitutionally obligated to ensure that only citizens are enrolled in the electoral rolls, it has decided to carry out an SIR for the entire country.
SIR is the ECI’s most rigorous electoral roll verification mechanism. Unlike routine annual updates, SIR involves door-to-door physical enumeration by BLOs, complete verification of every entry, and the re-issuance of the voter list from a freshly validated baseline to remove deceased, shifted, duplicate, or ineligible electors.
Conducted between June 30 and August 17, Delhi’s SIR evaluated a pre-revision baseline of 1.45 crore electors. The draft roll published on August 31, 2026, retained 97.53 lakh voters after excluding 47.56 lakh names. This 32.8% deletion rate stands as the highest draft-stage exclusion rate among all states and union territories revising. We describe below how the process unfolded.
Structural factors in shift in Delhi’s electoral baseline
The drop from 1.55 crore electors in February 2025 Assembly elections to the mid-2026 baseline of 1.45 crore reflects routine inter-revision churn, including continuous updates, new 18-year-old additions, and ongoing removals. Crucially, election authorities selected the revised June 20, 2026, roll of 1.45 crore as the baseline for the door-to-door enumeration, leading to the 97.53 lakh draft after 47.56 lakh exclusions.
The 64.55% reduction from 1,261 to 447 electors stems from physical door-to-door verification, which disproportionately impacts trans-individuals residing in mobile, informal, or stigmatised housing. The historical inconsistencies in tracking third-gender self-identifications across revisions led to uncollected or unmapped forms being classified into the “absent/shifted/others” category, causing significant percentage losses on a small numerical base.
Men comprised 56.78%–57.2% of total exclusions (27.2 lakh), a pattern that likely reflects the city’s migrant demographic profile, where a significant portion of the working-age population consists of single men residing in shared or rented accommodations. It is probable that unlocated individuals during BLO visits were categorised as “shifted” or “absent”, which aligns with ASDD list data indicating that 68.7% of deletions occurred within the 31–60 age group. Conversely, women appear more likely to have been enumerated at settled family residences, suggesting that the narrowing of the gender gap—from 9.13 lakh to 2.25 lakh—may largely be an incidental byproduct of higher male exclusion rates rather than deliberate targeting.
The SIR electoral-roll figures are significantly lower than Delhi’s overall population estimates. The 2011 Census recorded Delhi’s population at 1.678 crore, while population projections for 2025–26 place it at around 2.37 crore. However, an implied draft electorate under 1 crore remains low relative to projected adult demographics (1.469–1.614 crore), indicating substantial non-registration, non-citizenship, or extensive removals under shifted/absent classifications.
Next steps for the 4.4 lakh voters missing from Noida’s draft electoral rolls
Gautam Buddha Nagar saw a sharp dip in its electoral roll after the SIR, with nearly 4.4 lakh names disappearing between the pre-revision roll and the draft list released in January. The district, comprising the Noida, Dadri and Jewar constituencies, had around 18.7 lakh electors before SIR, but the draft roll contained only about 14.3 lakh. The reduction was nearly 24%, one of the steepest among Uttar Pradesh’s urban districts.
However, the draft-stage reduction does not mean that all 4.4 lakh voters were permanently deleted. The SIR exercise involved physical verification of electors and classified entries that could not be verified into categories including absent or untraceable, permanently shifted, deceased and duplicate voters. In Gautam Buddha Nagar, official data reported more than 37,000 voters as deceased, around 1.4 lakh as untraceable and nearly 2.2 lakh as permanently shifted.
The high number of shifted and untraceable voters is significant in Noida that has a highly mobile population. Officials had earlier flagged a large number of voters whose enumeration forms could not be collected. In Noida, around 27% electors had initially fallen into the absent, shifted or dead category. The administration subsequently ordered re-verification of such entries and set up camps to ensure that genuine voters were not left out.
Another category that became central to the exercise was that of “unmapped” voters whose details could not be linked to the 2002 electoral roll used as the base for the revision. The district administration has separately published constituency-wise lists of voters with “no mapping” and “logical discrepancy” for Noida, Dadri and Jewar. Being unmapped did not mean deletion. Such voters were given an opportunity to establish their eligibility and seek inclusion.
The process also triggered concerns over possible wrongful exclusions. Political representatives and residents raised questions over missing names and discrepancies in the rolls, while the administration undertook additional verification. The EC said that the revision was intended to remove duplication while allowing eligible voters to file claims and objections.
Following the claims, objections and verification exercise, the final roll for UP was published in April. Gautam Buddha Nagar’s final electorate stood at about 15.05 lakh, which was considerably higher than the 14.3 lakh voters in the draft roll but still roughly 3.6 lakh below the pre-SIR figure.
Thus, while nearly 4.4 lakh names were absent from Gautam Buddha Nagar’s draft electoral roll, the eventual net reduction was smaller. The SIR exercise has nevertheless substantially altered the district’s electoral base, with migration, untraceability, deaths and duplicate registrations accounting for a significant share of the entries removed during the exercise.
The constituency-wise lists that were published by the Gautam Buddha Nagar administration, hence, provide the trail to examine how these changes played out across Noida, Dadri and Jewar.
The mammoth task—its unfolding and the future of the capital’s electorate
SIR in Delhi began on June 30 with the enumeration phase, during which the BLOs visited house to house for distribution and collection of the forms. At the start of SIR, 1.45 crore electors were enrolled in the rolls of NCT of Delhi.
After the 100% distribution of enumeration forms was achieved, a total of 97.5 lakh electors submitted their forms. The completion of the enumeration phase was the result of coordinated efforts of DEOs of all 13 districts, 70 EROs, 297 AEROs, 1321 BLO supervisors and 13,033 BLOs deployed across 13,033 polling stations. Representatives of recognised political parties, including their district presidents, also participated, with as many as 33,226 BLAs appointed by them. The draft electoral roll was published on August 31 by the EROs of all 70 Assembly Constituencies of Delhi.
In case any elector was unable to submit their filled-in enumeration forms within the specified time (from June 30 to August 17), they may submit Form 6 along with the prescribed declaration form for inclusion during the claims and objections period. Form 6 is the application used to seek inclusion of a name in the electoral roll along with the other required supporting documents.
Another objective of the claims and objections period is to give opportunities for correction in electors’ particulars and also to invite objections against any wrong inclusion. During the claims and objections period (from August 31 to September 30), any elector or BLA of recognised political parties may file claims or objections for inclusion of eligible electors or for deletion. Authorities will examine the claims and objections before the final list is prepared.
Relevant for present exercise and in future— SIR of electoral rolls in 2002
This is not the first time that the poll panel is conducting an SIR. The ECI has carried out a major SIR drive in 2002 in the country, citing the preparation of a more accurate voter list.The 2002 electoral rolls have continued to remain relevant and are still available in government records to be used as reference documents in later revision exercises.
Even the 2002 revision involved the preparation and verification of electoral rolls at the constituency and polling-station levels. An important part of the exercise was the involvement of election officials at the local level. Electoral rolls were organised according to polling stations and electoral constituencies. This made it easier for officials to check voters in particular areas and maintain records in a systematic manner.
As per the media reports, the government websites in states such as Tamil Nadu and Telangana still preserve electoral rolls from the 2002 SIR, showing the continuing importance of those records.
The revision also provided a mechanism for correcting mistakes. Electoral-roll revision is not simply about removing names. Its broader purpose is to ensure that eligible citizens are included while ineligible entries are excluded. This principle remains central to the Election Commission’s present-day SIR process as well.
The outcome of the 2002 exercise was a revised set of electoral rolls for the areas where the intensive revision was undertaken. These rolls became an important historical record of registered electors. Over the years, however, population movement, migration, deaths, changes in addresses and the creation or reorganisation of constituencies have changed the electoral landscape.
One of the most significant aspects of the 2002 SIR is its continuing relevance. In recent years, the ECI has referred to earlier intensive revisions while conducting fresh electoral-roll exercises. The 2002 rolls are therefore not merely old voter lists. Its objective was to make voter lists more reliable and organised. Although electoral rolls have changed considerably since then, the 2002 revision remains significant because it created a detailed historical record that continues to be consulted during later revisions.
Delhi’s population is projected to reach approximately 3.2 crore by the year 2047 in the Delhi Development Authority Master Plan, which will be a surge from the current estimated population of approximately 2.3 crore, a growth of around nine million. By 2041, the document stated that the capital’s population will be 29.2 million. The migration is likely to contribute 41% of the population rise.
According to the MPD-2047, “the migration is estimated to contribute 41% of the population increase in Delhi during the plan period,” compared to 50% in the previous 2021 plan period. It added that the city was expected to see a rise in its working-age population, while the share of people aged 60 and above was also projected to increase.
The Master Plan for Delhi – 2021 (MPD-2021) had a projected population of 2.3 crore, whereas in its population projection for the year 2001, Delhi was to have a population of 1.2 crore. Hence, the SIR of electoral rolls will be an important document in tracing and maintaining a record that has survived migration, urbanisation, death and the addition of the newer generation.
