New Delhi, 20 September (H.S.): Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh has alleged that around 32 per cent of voters have been affected so far in the third phase of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls being conducted by the Election Commission. He said that, in effect, nearly one in every three voters in the country has either had their name removed from the electoral rolls or faces uncertainty over their registration because additional documents have been sought.

In an official statement on Sunday, Ramesh said that the Election Commission began the first phase of the SIR exercise in Bihar in June 2025. The second phase was subsequently launched in November 2025 across nine states and three Union Territories. He claimed that a total of 7.8 crore voter names were removed during these two phases, accounting for around 13 per cent of the electoral rolls that existed before the SIR exercise.

He said the third phase of the SIR began in mid-2026 across 16 states and three Union Territories. Citing available data from 12 states and two Union Territories, Ramesh said that out of a total of 36.06 crore voters, 6.18 crore, or more than 17 per cent, had been excluded from the electoral rolls. In addition, 5.43 crore voters, or around 15 per cent, had received notices seeking additional documents. Combining the two figures, he claimed that the voting rights of around 32 per cent of voters were under threat.

Giving state-wise figures, Ramesh claimed that 53.73 per cent of voters in Delhi, 52.58 per cent in Chandigarh, 48.90 per cent in Telangana, 39.57 per cent in Jharkhand, 37.5 per cent in Haryana, 35.71 per cent in Uttarakhand, 35.36 per cent in Meghalaya, 33.88 per cent in Maharashtra, 27.6 per cent in Karnataka, 23.67 per cent in Odisha, 21.17 per cent in Andhra Pradesh and 15.23 per cent in Punjab had been affected.

Ramesh said Karnataka, Telangana and Jharkhand had made public lists of voters whose names were at risk of being deleted, allowing the concerned individuals to verify their names and status. According to him, Delhi also published such a list on September 19 following public pressure. He alleged that other BJP-ruled states and Punjab had not yet released similar lists.

He alleged that economically and socially weaker and marginalised sections were facing the greatest difficulties in the SIR process. According to him, in most of the larger states, more women than men had been removed from the electoral rolls.

Ramesh said the government was shifting its responsibility onto citizens by asking them to produce documents that many people had never possessed. He described the SIR exercise as an attack on the Constitution.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar