By Dr. Gyan Pathak
Electoral rolls prepared by the State Election Commissions of Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh have exposed many discrepancies in the SIR driven voter lists produced by the Election Commission of India (ECI). Most objectionable part is that ECI’s voter list marked even live persons dead, in very large numbers in lakhs, and subsequently deleted. State Election Commissions voter lists found them live and they are voting in Rajasthan and will probably vote in Uttar Pradesh Panchayat elections. What credibility is then left of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls?
ECI led by CEC Gyanesh Kumar has conducted SIR across the country and deleted over 13.3 crore voters from their list. Statutory grounds for deletion are death, permanent shifting or migration, ineligibility and duplication. However, during SIR deletions were often grouped under broader operation categories like – absent (repeatedly found missing during door-to-door verification), shifter (permanently relocated), dead (deceased electors) and duplicated (multiple entries).
Categories like logical discrepancies were included through ECINet in which unauthorized deletions were made, and valid voters were not allowed to be added by the authorized election officers. There were safeguards, but were not followed properly, or not allowed. Deletions were also triggered by Form 7 bulk submissions. All these paved way for numerous discrepancies in SIR driven electoral rolls, but ECI, BJP, and PM Narendra Modi led government have been defending it.
More discrepancies are sure to come out when State Election Commissions of other states will prepare their electoral rolls for their panchayat and local bodies elections. Currently, these are available on for Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh has openly criticized the SIR now alleging that ECI’s electoral roll had deleted about 1.27 crore of Hindu votes. He said that BJP has also appealed to the poll body to include those who had been left out of the rolls despite there being evidence of them being voters, and asked how the names of these Hindu voters had gone missing and who was behind it.
CM Yogi has said that 1.27 crores Hindu voters were missing from the ECI’s voter list but in the electoral roll prepared for the Uttar Pradesh Panchayat polls have their names. “How have these names gone missing? Who was behind it?” he asked. He also pointed out that names of even 55 lakh Hindu voters who were getting benefits of the government’s welfare schemes are missing from ECI’s electoral rolls and also missing the names of 4.5 lakh voters from the 18-19 age group.
Largest aggregate discrepancies are found in Uttar Pradesh. The combined difference in the ECI’s electoral roll and the State Election Commission’s electoral roll is 3.45 crore. The combined local body electoral roll prepared by SEC has 16.91 crore voters but ECI’s SIR driven Assembly electoral roll has 13.46 crore voters. The rural comparison is particularly important. Panchayat electoral roll has 12.58 crore names, while Rural Assembly roll has 10.2 crore names. The difference is 2.38 crore. The Urban difference is approximately 97 lakhs.
Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh are due in early 2027, while Allahabad High Court had directed the State Election Commission on October 14, 2026 to hold the long delayed panchayat elections within three months, which are yet to be announced. The terms of over 58,000 gram panchayats were expired around May 26, 2026.
In Rajasthan, panchayat elections are being held in four phases from October 23 to November 17. It was in this context, State Election Commission has prepared electoral rolls. Strongest evidence of individual deletion errors are exposed. About 26.63 lakh people were deleted during SIR from Assembly voter list, but their name appear in the SEC’s voter list for the panchayat elections.
Final ECI SIR electorate in Rajasthan were 5.15 crore, while SEC local body electorate are about 5.45 – 5.48 crore. Overall difference is about 30 lakh. SIR deleted voters classified as dead but still listed as eligible in the SEC voter list are 1,82,440. ECI final-roll voters missing from SEC rolls 15.52 lakhs.
The investigation by The Reporters’ Collective has matched EPIC numbers rather than merely comparing aggregate totals. The particularly disturbing finding is that approximately 1.82 lakh people declared dead by the ECI were found on the Panchayat electoral roll as living and eligible voters.
No explanation can validate the two voter lists simultaneously with significant discrepancies. Living persons marked as dead in the SIR driven electoral roll is shocking. It is doubly shocking that in defence of the SIR, our Union Minister of Home Amit Shah has stated that nearly 3 crore deceased individuals’ name have been deleted from India’s voter list. Rajasthan evidence shows that lakhs of deleted and marked dead votes in the ECI’s list were alive in SEC’s voter list and eligible to vote.
While Uttar Pradesh electoral roll discrepancies present a much larger electoral inclusion question ahead of the 2027 Assembly election, the Rajasthan findings raise serious question about the reliability of verification process. Both has made integrity of SIR doubtful, and hence they must be scrapped. Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh are BJP ruled states, and state BJP leaders have raised fingers on SIR driven electoral rolls. The Opposition has already been agitating against the SIR demanding it to be scrapped and CEC Gyanesh Kumar be sacked. (IPA Service)
