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The Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision of India’s voter rolls has struck approximately 133.9 million names in its draft stage across three phases since June 2025 according to data from the poll body. Opposition parties have organized near-daily demonstrations in New Delhi and other major cities demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar while alleging the process disproportionately targets Muslims and supporters of rival groups. Police have used force to disperse some protests as the revisions pose a significant challenge to the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Tailor Kamta Prasad has spent multiple days without earning his daily wage of 250 rupees shuttling between government offices in the capital to prove he is alive after his name appeared on the list of deletions published August 31. “I panicked when I heard about it” Prasad said according to a Straits Times report. “Since then I’ve been going everywhere to prove that I’m alive.” He is one of 4.2 million Delhi voters struck off the draft rolls published by the poll body on August 31.
Election Commission figures cited by Reuters break down the 133.9 million draft deletions into 28 million deceased 63 million who had permanently shifted 10.2 million duplicates 30.1 million absent or untraceable and smaller categories totaling the full amount. The commission has stated that the drive targets ineligible entries and allows excluded voters to submit claims with documents for reinstatement before final rolls are published. In Delhi more than 4.7 million names were removed from an electorate that stood at 14.5 million prior to the exercise according to the city’s chief electoral officer. The poll body has now launched a Special Summary Revision in 17 states that completed the intensive exercise with draft rolls due November 12.
Former chief election commissioner SY Qureshi told The Guardian the revision amounted to a national harassment exercise designed to throw Muslims off the electoral roll. The Financial Times reported entire Muslim families in Hyderabad removed under claims they had permanently shifted despite long residence in the area. Opposition groups have asserted in court filings and public statements that the changes aided the Bharatiya Janata Party in recent state polls a charge both the commission and the party have rejected.
Economist Surjit Bhalla analyzed the data and determined that roughly 7 million eligible voters may have been removed without clear explanation while most deletions aligned with deaths relocations and duplicates. Bhalla’s assessment published on his Substack platform noted that of the net deletions in states with finalized rolls about 5.1 million appeared justified leaving the smaller unexplained share. His review highlighted that 93 percent of decided appeals so far resulted in voters being found eligible according to the figures he examined. In West Bengal the roll fell 11.6 percent according to his breakdown of Election Commission data.
The commission has instructed booth level officers in Delhi to re-verify all excluded names by October 30 with roughly 15,000 officers visiting households to assist with reinstatement forms. It has also directed restoration of eligible voters omitted in error and reported receiving 22.2 million appeals nationwide per data presented to the Supreme Court. Voters still missing from final rolls can escalate cases to district magistrates or chief electoral officers for further review.
