Delhi SIR: Deleted votes exceed winning margin in 68 seats

A recent audit of Delhi's electoral rolls has uncovered massive voter exclusions under the Special Intensive Revision, with over 47 lakh electors marked as absent, shifted, dead, or duplicate, raising critical questions about the integrity of the upcoming elections. The number of excluded electors in the draft electoral roll under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) has exceeded the winning margin in 68 of Delhi's 70 Assembly constituencies in the 2025 polls, a report released on Tuesday said. The study carried out by 'Voter Adhikar Manch', based on records published by the Election Commission of India and Delhi's chief electoral officer, said the city's electoral roll had 1,56,14,000 electors on January 31, 2025, when the Delhi Assembly election was held. By June 30, 2026, when the SIR began, the roll had 1,45,10,299 electors. During the SIR, the Election Commission marked a further 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 three electors, according to the audit by the Sabar Institute and Voter Adhikar Manch. Of those excluded, 31,59,223 were classified as permanently shifted, 11,73,552 as untraceable or absent, 2,82,412 as dead and 1,41,535 as enrolled/duplicate, it said. The audit also found that 11,03,701 electors were deleted from the rolls between January 2025 and June 30, 2026, before the SIR began. It said there was a sharp spike in deletions in the two-three months preceding the exercise, with 3,39,509 deletions recorded 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 audit also found that 577 of the 1,267 third-gender electors on the roll used for the February 2025 election had been deleted, a rate of 45.5 per cent, compared with an overall voter deletion of 37.5 per cent, it said. Addressing a public hearing organised by the Voter Adhikar Manch in New Delhi on Tuesday, activist Yogendra Yadav said the findings were a glimpse of what was happening across the country through the SIR exercise. "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," Yadav said. He also questioned the deletion of more than 11 lakh names from Delhi's rolls before the SIR, saying the normal procedure required notice, an objection, a hearing and a written order. Activist Anjali Bharadwaj drew attention to the relationship between the present exclusions and the February 2025 Delhi Assembly election. She said around 94 lakh electors had voted in that election. "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 included a house-to-house verification in Block Y of Mangol Puri. Around 40 volunteers verified 1,448 of 1,516 houses and found, among other discrepancies, more than 450 electors who were present at their addresses but had been placed on the ASDD list. More than 500 electors were found to be present but had been dropped from the SIR without appearing on either the draft roll or the ASDD list. The Voter Adhikar Manch demanded restoration of electors wrongly marked absent, shifted, dead or duplicate, extension of the claims and objections period and individual notice and hearing before deletion. It also 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 allowing voters displaced by demolition to file claims from their current residence. The Manch has demanded withdrawal of the Delhi SIR and restoration of the electoral roll as it stood before the exercise.