NEW DELHI: Thousands of Indian voters are facing difficulties restoring their names to electoral rolls after a nationwide revision removed millions of entries, including people mistakenly recorded as deceased or listed at incorrect addresses.
Among those affected is 53-year-old Kamta Prasad, a tailor in Delhi who has been visiting government offices to prove that he is alive and eligible to vote.
Prasad is among 4.2 million voters removed from Delhi’s electoral rolls in draft lists published by the Election Commission on August 31. He says the process has forced him to sacrifice his daily earnings of 250 rupees, which help support his family of four.
“I panicked when I heard about it,” Prasad said, adding that he had repeatedly approached officials to correct the error.
The deletions stem from the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR), a voter verification exercise that has reportedly removed around 130 million names from electoral rolls. The process has triggered protests and intensified political tensions, presenting a major challenge for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government.
Opposition parties and youth groups have accused Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar of overseeing a revision that could benefit Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Both the Election Commission and the BJP have rejected the allegations.
Protests in New Delhi and other locations have continued, with demonstrations sometimes met with police action.
Voters caught in bureaucratic hurdles
Rajendra Kumar, a volunteer with the non-profit organisation Jan Sarokar, said approximately 2,000 of the nearly 9,000 voters in Prasad’s neighbourhood were removed from the draft rolls.
The affected entries were categorised under different reasons, including voters being absent, having moved elsewhere, being deceased or registered at another location.
Although Prasad is reportedly the only person in his neighbourhood mistakenly listed as dead, local media have highlighted similar cases elsewhere in the country.
The Election Commission has maintained that the exercise aims to remove duplicate entries and exclude deceased, relocated and otherwise ineligible voters. It has also said people removed incorrectly can submit claims and supporting documents and pursue appeals before the electoral rolls are finalised.
However, affected voters say the correction process can involve repeated visits to election offices, hearings and multiple applications. Depending on the circumstances, they may have to establish their identity, prove their residence or resolve discrepancies in official records.
Prasad said his long voting history had not helped him resolve the issue.
“I told them I voted in the last assembly and general elections and have been voting for 35 years, but nobody listens,” he said.
The Election Commission did not respond to a request for comment on the cases cited in the report.
Fresh applications instead of reinstatement
Following weeks of protests, the Election Commission ordered fresh verification in some states, including Delhi. Prasad said officials had assured him that his name would be restored.
Kamal Lal, a 38-year-old private school teacher, also found himself excluded from the electoral rolls despite continuing to live in the same settlement beneath a flyover in Delhi.
Lal said he was classified as having moved away, although he shares the settlement with dozens of other families.
He said he discovered the deletion in September and had since visited election officials, attended hearings and submitted several applications seeking reinstatement.
Expressing frustration over the process, Lal said residents were being penalised because they lacked property documents or utility bills to establish their addresses.
Some voters say officials have advised them to register as new voters rather than restore their previous entries, a suggestion that has caused further concern among those who have voted in earlier elections.
Mamta, a 39-year-old woman who does not use a surname, said her husband opposed the idea of applying for fresh registration because both had voted in previous elections.
She also fears that remaining off the electoral rolls could affect her family’s access to subsidised food rations and other government welfare benefits.
The controversy has raised concerns about the difficulties faced by low-income residents and people without formal property records in proving their eligibility, as the authorities continue efforts to verify and finalise electoral rolls.
