Congress alleges “targeted deletions” in voter roll revision in Bengal, Tamil Nadu

The Congress party raised an alarm on Tuesday over the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, accusing the Election Commission of India (ECI) of lack of transparency and “arbitrary” decision-making, alleging arbitrariness and targeted deletion of voters in states such as West Bengal and Tamil Nadu.

The party expressed the fears that the process is leading to the mass disenfranchisement of voters, particularly among poor and marginalized communities.

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Addressing a press conference, Congress MP Sasikanth Senthil criticized the execution of the SIR across 12 states. He alleged that the exercise is being conducted without standardized protocols or adequate training for Booth Level Officers (BLOs). He claimed that BLOs are being forced to make individual judgments on voter deletions without clear institutional guidelines.

The MP highlighted a “U-turn” on de-duplication software, noting that it was discarded in Bihar for being unreliable but has now been reintroduced in other states without explanation.

Citing investigative reports, Senthil pointed out that the Bihar SIR left approximately 14.5 lakh duplicate voters on the rolls, violating the ECI’s own 2023 manual requiring 100% de-duplication.

The Congress leader presented data to illustrate the scale of the potential discrepancies:

West Bengal: Over 32 lakh voters marked as “unmapped”; 1.7 crore entries flagged for “logical discrepancies.”

Tamil Nadu: Alleged deletion of roughly 97 lakh voters, including 6 lakh in a single constituency.

Senthil questioned the handling of “logical discrepancies”, such as improbable age gaps between parents and children, stating that BLOs are receiving no clear instructions on how to resolve these cases.

The Congress is demanding that the ECI should release publicly available guidelines and specific yardsticks used for voter deletion. Senthil questioned the “urgency” of the current revision, arguing that such a massive undertaking requires years of careful, consultative work rather than a rushed process that risks the integrity of the democratic system.

“The manner in which the SIR is being conducted has created ‘strong doubts’ among citizens,” Senthil said, emphasizing that any large-scale revision must protect the rights of every eligible voter.