Published Oct 12, 2026 | 5:57 PM ⚊ Updated Oct 12, 2026 | 5:57 PM
The draft electoral roll released after SIR had reduced the electorate in Delhi from 1.45 crore to 97.35 lakh
Synopsis: The Chief Electoral Officer in Delhi said no eligible voter will be excluded from the electoral roll, even as a report by The Reporters’ Collective said BLOs were asked to add voters based on a certificate without checking documents—a U-turn from the SIR’s stated purpose.
Can we call it an effect of the protests against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and the Special Intensive Revision (SIR)?
A couple of hours before the INDIA bloc leaders took out their massive march to the Supreme Court of India on Monday, 12 October, the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) in Delhi issued a message, saying no eligible voter will be excluded from the electoral rolls.
The draft electoral roll released after SIR had reduced the electorate in Delhi from 1.45 crore to 97.35 lakh, representing an overall reduction of 32.8 per cent. It was the biggest cull in a state under SIR.
The CEO said on Monday that around 20 lakh out of the 33 lakh voter list entries flagged under Logical Discrepancy or Unmapped categories in the national capital have been resolved. Delhi had seen 13.79 lakh unmapped entries and 19.33 lakh records flagged under “logical discrepancies”.
The X post said a proactive campaign has been launched to resolve issues linked to Logical Discrepancy or Unmapped categories.
“If any person has any grievance, please feel free to contact any of the 14,947 BLOs, 902 AEROs, 70 EROs, 13 DEOs or the CEO,” the post said.
The move also comes two days after The Reporters’ Collective on Sunday, 11 October, said a WhatsApp directive has been issued to Booth-level Officers (BLOs) to get doubtful voters to sign a new form called a “certificate”. Signing the certificate eliminates the need to submit any proof of identity required for the final voter roll.
“The move turns the original logic of the Election Commission of India’s (ECI) Special Intensive Revision (SIR) upside down,” The Collective reported.
BLOs were also informally asked not to delete any more voters, and they should clear the remaining discrepancy cases quickly to wrap up the process.
The Collective said it analysed all 33.11 lakh notices issued to Delhi voters. Twenty lakh of these notices involved “logical discrepancies, meaning mismatches in voters’ names or their parents’ names, and anomalies in parents’ ages, among other reasons. Many of these voters have already appeared for hearings”, the report said.
Documents revealed that once a BLO certifies a case, “no hearing is required to be scheduled,” and no additional documents may be “insisted upon”. Instead, the voter’s name could be forwarded for inclusion in the final electoral roll.
Earlier, lakhs of voters were asked to map themselves to the 2002 rolls. Those who couldn’t were deleted. Of those who made it, The Collective said lakhs more were made to appear for hearings and submit documents to resolve discrepancies.
The latest instruction has surpassed the process. The Collective said it was unsure whether the “certificates” were uniform across Delhi.
(Edited by Majnu Babu).
