The developments so far, and the allegations being heard, suggest that the Sangh Parivar is exerting pressure on BLOs to delete the names of those it is certain will not vote for it.
Published Jan 18, 2026 | 12:00 PM ⚊ Updated Jan 18, 2026 | 12:00 PM
Voters wait their at a polling station in Lankreshipora, Bandipora, in Jammu and Kashmir. (CEO J&K/X)
Synopsis: The Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls is happening across several states in the country. However, there are concerns of irregularity, corruption and illegality in the process. The developments so far, and the allegations being heard, suggest that the Sangh Parivar is exerting pressure on BLOs to delete the names of those it is certain will not vote for it, and to add some fictitious names to facilitate bogus voting in its favour.
The district administration of Bulandshahr in Uttar Pradesh initiated an inquiry on Thursday, 15 January. News of some irregularity, corruption, or illegality surfacing somewhere or the other in government functioning, followed by the district administration or higher authorities ordering an inquiry, is quite routine.
However, in this particular instance, pulling one thread threatens to unravel the whole fabric. The purpose of this inquiry is to ascertain the truth behind complaints that there were irregularities in the draft electoral rolls released after the recently conducted Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise in the state.
In the Shikarpur tehsil of the district, there is a small town called Pahasu, which has a locality known as Pathan Tola. Many residents of this locality have complained that their names have disappeared from the draft list, and that unknown persons’ names have appeared against their house numbers. A resident of the locality, Sagir Khan, submitted a written complaint to the district authorities.
He stated that before the SIR process, the voters’ list was accurate, but in the draft list published after last month’s SIR exercise, 56 Hindu names were newly added, that too against the house numbers of more than half a dozen Muslim households.
“At least eight house numbers in our locality show an unexpected increase in the number of voters. In my own house, numbered 125, seven new names have been added. All seven are Hindu names. Similar increases are seen in eight other houses as well. Altogether, 56 new names have been added in our area,” he wrote.
Following this complaint, Shikarpur Sub-Divisional Magistrate Arun Kumar said that these voter list irregularities are being corrected through Form 8 (the application submitted for corrections in the electoral roll), and that all valid complaints will be addressed similarly.
He also assured that an inquiry is underway and that action will be taken against the officials responsible. He added that these are “nothing more” than errors crept into the draft electoral rolls.
However, whether there is “something more” than this — whether deliberate additions and deletions have taken place, are taking place, or are about to take place — is the question before the country today. This is not a problem confined to one house, one family, one locality, one village, or one town; it is a question that can overturn the entire electoral system of the country.
It is a question of whether, at the very root of parliamentary democratic elections in India — at the level of the voters’ lists themselves — a foundation of illegality is being laid. It is a question of what kind of poisonous trees might sprout and grow into giant banyans on such a foundation.
Consequently, it is a question of whether governance in our society will continue through a representative democratic system or degenerate into a haven for illegality.
Before searching for an answer to this question, we must also look at another incident in another state. In Rajasthan’s Jaipur Hawa Mahal Assembly constituency, a video began circulating on social media three or four days ago, in which Keerthi Kumar, a Booth Level Officer (BLO), is heard shouting on the phone, “If this is how it is, I will come to the Collector’s office and commit suicide there.”
On the other end of that call was Suresh Saini, a BJP councillor. In the same conversation, Keerthi Kumar said, “Perhaps you will be satisfied if I delete the votes of the entire locality. Maybe you think that if I do that, Maharaj will win easily.” The “Maharaj” referred to is the current local BJP MLA, Balmukund Acharya.
In the Hawa Mahal constituency, where Muslim voters form an overwhelming majority, he won the 2023 elections with a margin of 974 votes. He is also the chief priest of the Dakshin Mukhi Balaji temple in Jaipur. He has already been in the news for several actions and statements hostile to Muslims.
Now, in the ongoing SIR process in Rajasthan, Keerthi Kumar said he is being pressured to delete 470 votes from the draft electoral roll, amounting to 40 percent of the total votes in that booth.
A school teacher by profession, this BLO questioned how it is possible to delete hundreds of names from a voters’ list that he had already verified and authenticated.
He also stated that those pressuring him to make these deletions are leaders of the BJP. Over the past two months, as the SIR process has been underway in Rajasthan, many BLOs have complained about the pressure being exerted on them.
There are reports that due to such pressure, three BLOs have already died — either by suicide or due to heart attacks. From Uttar Pradesh too, BLOs are complaining about workload and pressure.
All this indicates that the SIR process is not merely the routine revision of electoral rolls that the Election Commission ordinarily undertakes.
The declared objectives of the SIR exercise are to remove from the old voters’ lists the names of the deceased, those who have permanently migrated and registered as voters elsewhere, and those who failed to furnish information sought by the Commission; and to add the names of those who have newly turned 18, as well as those who have migrated permanently to a place and got their names deleted from electoral rolls elsewhere.
However, the developments so far, and the allegations being heard, suggest that the ruling party is exerting pressure on BLOs to delete the names of those it is certain will not vote for it, and to add some fictitious names to facilitate bogus voting in its favour.
The instances cited above are reports that have come this week from Uttar Pradesh on one side and Rajasthan on the other. But overall, there is ample evidence that “something more” has already happened, is happening, and is about to happen across the country.
In Bihar’s SIR, out of a total of 7.76 crore voters, the names of 58 lakh voters were deleted, and elections were conducted with a list of 7.08 crore voters. The Election Commission did not disclose the religious composition of the 58 lakh voters who were deleted.
However, when independent researchers used software to identify religious affiliation based on names, they found that around 25 percent could be Muslims. Among the officially deleted 3.66 lakh voters, 34 percent were found to be Muslims. Muslims constitute 14.2 percent of India’s population and 16.8 percent of Bihar’s population.
If 25 percent or 34 percent of those deleted are Muslims, it clearly indicates deletions far exceeding their population share. The Election Commission must explain how this happened, who orchestrated it, and under whose instructions it silently acquiesced.
Similarly, in the SIR process in West Bengal, where elections are due in a few months, clarification notices are being issued in disproportionately large numbers precisely in Muslim-majority areas.
For example, in Murshidabad district, where Muslims constitute over 66 percent of the population, more than 30 percent of voters have received such notices. On the other hand, in Bankura district, where Muslims make up only about eight percent of the population, fewer than 13 percent of voters have received notices.
In the second phase, the SIR process is underway in twelve states, including Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, and Gujarat. In this phase, final electoral rolls for a total of 51 crore voters will be published by February 2026. If the Bihar example is any indication, five to six crore names could be deleted from these 51 crore.
There are already criticisms that SIR is an attempt by the Sangh Parivar to target Muslims, Dalits, and in some regions backward classes — people it suspects will not vote for it — in order to cancel their voting rights.
Especially since the days of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and the National Register of Citizens, which were introduced to cast doubt on Muslim citizenship, the Sangh Parivar has been pursuing this agenda. Although nationwide protests slowed the pace of those efforts, the same objective is now being achieved through SIR.
The roots of this malaise lie in the ideology articulated by Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh ideologue MS Golwalkar in his 1939 book We, or Our Nationhood Defined. Consider his words: “..the foreing races in Hindusthan must either adopt the Hindu culture and language, must learn to respect and hold in reverence Hindu religion, must entertain no idea but those of the glorification of the Hindu race and culture, i.e., of the Hindu nation and must lose their separate existence to merge in the Hindu race, or may stay in the country, wholly subordinated to the Hindu Nation, claiming nothing, deserving no privileges, far less any preferential treatment — not even citizen’s rights. There is, at least should be, no other course for them to adopt…”
This is the saffron venom that Golwalkar wrote down verbatim even before independence, before his organisation came to power. This is the poison the Sangh Parivar has been spreading for a hundred years.
In a few months, SIR will come to Telangana as well. Is the state prepared?
(Views are personal.)
