IndiaPosted at: Sep 20 2026 12:30PM


Ramesh calls SIR ‘Shah instigated removal’, alleges mass voter deletions and constitutional assault

New Delhi, Sep 20 (UNI) Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh on Sunday stepped up the Congress’s criticism of the Election Commission of India’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise, alleging that the process had led to large-scale deletion of voters and placed a disproportionate burden on economically and socially disadvantaged sections of society.
In a statement posted on social media platform X, Ramesh described SIR as a “Shah Instigated Removal of voters on a massive scale” and alleged that the exercise had effectively shifted the responsibility of establishing electoral eligibility from the state to individual citizens.
“The state has abdicated its responsibility and shifted the burden onto citizens to produce documents it may never have provided them,” Ramesh said. “A test that the overwhelming majority of citizens cannot pass is just a machine for exclusion.”
Ramesh said the ECI had begun Phase 1 of the SIR process in Bihar in June 2025, followed by Phase 2 in November 2025 across nine states and three union Territories. According to the figures cited by him, 7.8 crore names were deleted during the first two phases, accounting for 13 per cent of the pre-SIR electoral roll.
He said Phase 3, launched across 16 states and three union Territories in mid-2026, had so far resulted in the deletion of 6.18 crore names out of 36.06 crore voters in 12 states and two union Territories for which data was available. Ramesh put the deletion rate at more than 17 per cent.
He further claimed that another 5.43 crore voters had been issued notices seeking additional documentation to retain their names on the electoral rolls, putting another 15 per cent of voters at risk of deletion.
“Thus, a staggering 32 per cent (or about one in three) of voters have had their names deleted or face risk of deletion,” Ramesh said, describing the figures as evidence of “structural flaws in the entire SIR process”. He also questioned how such a large number of voters could still require verification after an extensive round of deletions had already taken place.
Citing state-wise figures, Ramesh said the proportion of voters who had either been deleted or faced the risk of deletion stood at 53.73 per cent 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.
The Congress leader also questioned the manner in which lists of voters facing possible deletion had been made public. He said such lists had been made available in Karnataka, Telangana and Jharkhand, enabling voters to check their status. Delhi, he claimed, published its list only on September 19 following public pressure, while other BJP-ruled states and Punjab had not done so.
Ramesh alleged that the large-scale deletions had disproportionately affected economically and socially disadvantaged sections of society. He also claimed that, in most major states, more women than men had been deleted from the electoral rolls during the SIR exercise.
“There is abundant evidence to prove that large-scale deletions across states are overwhelmingly those of voters belonging to the most economically and socially disadvantaged and deprived sections of our society,” he said.
Arguing that the process had placed the onus on citizens to produce documents that they might never have been issued by government authorities, Ramesh said the SIR exercise raised fundamental questions about access to the electoral process.
He reiterated his strongest criticism at the conclusion of his statement, saying, “SIR is actually a massive Shah Instigated Removal of voters. It is an assault on our Constitution.”
The Congress has been consistently critical of the SIR exercise, raising concerns over voter deletions, documentation requirements and the procedures available to voters seeking to establish their eligibility. The figures and allegations cited by Ramesh represent the Congress’s assessment of the exercise and would need to be read alongside the Election Commission’s official data and explanations regarding the status of deleted voters and those whose names have been flagged for verification. UNI SKA AAB
Tags: #Ramesh calls SIR ‘Shah instigated removal’# alleges mass voter deletions and constitutional assault
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