HighLights
  1. Congress alleges "Shah-instigated removal" of voters through SIR process.
  2. Jairam Ramesh claims 32% of voters deleted or at risk.
  3. ECI states revision aims to cleanse electoral rolls of ineligible.

A fresh political turmoil has emerged, with Congress questioning how high voter removal is in 12 states on Sunday. The opposition raised fresh concerns over alleged large-scale voter deletions during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls being conducted by the Election Commission, pointing to the deletion and verification of millions of names across states.

In a post on X, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh targeted Union Home Minister Amit Shah, alleging that the SIR is actually a massive "Shah-instigated removal" of voters and an "assault on the Constitution".

"SIR, in reality, it is the Shah who instigated the removal of a large section of voters. This statement is regarding this open attack being carried out on our Constitution."

The party also claimed that voters from economically and socially disadvantaged sections had been disproportionately affected by the deletions.

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This comes after the Election Commission of India (ECI) began Phase 1 of the SIR process in June 2025 in Bihar, followed by Phase 2 in November 2025 across nine states and three Union Territories (UTs).

What did the Congress say?

Congress senior leader Jairam Ramesh alleged that 7.8 crore voter names were deleted during Phases 1 and 2, with the deletions accounting for 13 per cent of the pre-SIR electoral roll.

Congress general secretary in charge of communications Jairam Ramesh said the Election Commission of India (ECI) began Phase 1 of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process of the electoral rolls in June 2025 in Bihar, and subsequently Phase 2 was launched in November 2025 across nine states and three Union Territories (UTs).

In Phase 1 and Phase 2, names of 7.8 crore voters were deleted, Ramesh said in a statement.

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The deletion rate as a proportion of the pre-SIR electoral roll works out to 13 per cent, he said.

He said Phase 3 commenced in 16 states and three UTs in mid-2026.

According to the data on 12 states and two UTs, the names of 6.18 crore voters out of a total of 36.06 crore have been deleted in the ongoing Phase 3.

"The deletion rate works out to over 17 per cent."

An additional 5.43 crore voters have been issued notices demanding additional documentation to have their names retained on the electoral roll. The risk of deletion rate works to another 15 per cent. This is an unusually high proportion that reflects structural flaws in the entire SIR process," Ramesh said.

After such a large round of deletion, how can there still be so many additional voters who need to "be verified", he asked.

"Thus, a staggering 32 per cent (or about one in three) of voters have had their names deleted or face risk of deletion. The state-wise picture on this measure is as follows: Delhi (53.73 per cent), Chandigarh (52.58 per cent), Jharkhand (39.57 per cent), Uttarakhand (35.71 per cent), Meghalaya (35.36 per cent), Maharashtra (33.88 per cent), Telangana (48.90 per cent), Karnataka (27.6 per cent), Haryana (37.5 per cent), Odisha (23.67 per cent), Andhra Pradesh (21.17 per cent) and Punjab (15.23 per cent). 4. The list of voters facing risk of deletion in Karnataka, Telangana and Jharkhand was made publicly available so voters can check if they are on it

"Delhi made this list available publicly only on September 19th, 2026, and that too only in response to public pressure. Other BJP-ruled states as well as Punjab have not done so till now," he said.

There is abundant evidence to prove that large-scale deletions across states are overwhelmingly those of voters belonging to the most economically and socially disadvantaged and deprived sections of our society, he alleged.

In most major states, more women than men have been deleted from the electoral roll during the SIR process, he claimed.

With this SIR, the state has abdicated its responsibility and shifted the burden onto citizens to produce documents it may never have provided them, he said in his statement.

A test that the overwhelming majority of citizens cannot pass is just a "machine for exclusion", Ramesh said.

"SIR is actually a massive Shah-instigated removal of voters. It is an assault on our Constitution," the Congress general secretary said in an apparent reference to Home Minister Amit Shah.

However, the Election Commission has maintained that the revision, being held after 22 years, will cleanse the voters' list of ineligible people and duplicate entries and include those eligible as per law to vote.

( With inputs from PTI )


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