The New Indian Express ·
Delhi SIR: Excluded voters exceed 2025 winning margin in 68 Assembly seats, study finds
The number of electors excluded from Delhi’s draft electoral roll under the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exceeds the winning margin recorded in the 2025 Assembly elections in 68 of the Capital’s 70 constituencies, according to a study released Tuesday.
The audit, conducted by the Sabar Institute and Voter Adhikar Manch, analysed electoral data published by the Election Commission of India (ECI) and the Delhi Chief Electoral Officer.
According to the study, Delhi had 1,56,14,000 electors on the electoral roll as of January 31, 2025, when the Assembly elections were held. By June 30, 2026, when the SIR exercise began, the number had fallen to 1,45,10,299.
During the SIR, the ECI classified another 47,27,762 electors as absent, shifted, dead or duplicate (ASDD), accounting for 32.8 per cent of the SIR base, or nearly one in every three electors, the audit said.
Of those classified under ASDD, 31,59,223 were listed as permanently shifted, 11,73,552 as untraceable or absent, 2,82,412 as dead and 1,41,535 as enrolled elsewhere or duplicate voters.
The audit also flagged the deletion of 11,03,701 electors from Delhi’s rolls between January 2025 and June 30, 2026, before the SIR began. It said deletions increased sharply in the months preceding the exercise, with 3,39,509 names removed in April 2026 alone.
The exclusion rate crossed 40 per cent in more than 10 constituencies, with Tughlakabad recording the highest rate at 47.83 per cent, followed by Okhla at 45.16 per cent and R K Puram at 44.36 per cent.
The study also highlighted a disproportionately high deletion rate among third-gender electors. Of the 1,267 such voters on the roll used for the February 2025 election, 577 or 45.5 per cent had been deleted, compared with an overall deletion rate of 37.5 per cent.
At a public hearing organised by the Voter Adhikar Manch in Delhi on Tuesday, activist Yogendra Yadav said the findings reflected the larger concerns surrounding the SIR exercise across the country.
“There are 15 crore missing voters in this country. Missing persons who should be on the voter list, but they are not. Such a big fraud has never happened anywhere in the history of democracy in the world,” he said.
Yadav also questioned the deletion of more than 11 lakh names from Delhi’s electoral rolls before the SIR, arguing that the process ordinarily requires notice, an opportunity to raise objections, a hearing and a written order.
Activist Anjali Bharadwaj linked the latest exclusions to the February 2025 Assembly election, in which around 94 lakh electors had voted.
“Today, 91 lakh voters are either deleted or they have been notified. Which voters voted in the elections? Can we, the people of Delhi, believe that the electoral outcome of February 2025 was correct? How do we trust the electoral outcome of February 2025 elections in Delhi?” she asked.
The audit also involved a house-to-house verification exercise in Block Y of Mangol Puri. Around 40 volunteers visited 1,448 of the 1,516 houses and found more than 450 electors who were present at their addresses but had been placed on the ASDD list.
The volunteers also found more than 500 electors who were present at their addresses but had been dropped from the SIR without appearing either on the draft electoral roll or the ASDD list, the audit said.
The Voter Adhikar Manch called for the restoration of electors wrongly classified as absent, shifted, dead or duplicate and sought an extension of the claims and objections period. It also demanded individual notice and a hearing before any deletion.
The group further sought publication of constituency-wise ASDD data, booth-level claims camps in bastis, jhuggi clusters, resettlement and unauthorised colonies and shelter homes, and a mechanism for voters displaced by demolitions to file claims from their current place of residence.
The Manch has also demanded that the Delhi SIR be withdrawn and the electoral roll restored to its position before the exercise.
(With inputs from PTI)
