‘I am not dead’: Voters marked dead speak up; citizen groups flag discrepancies in Delhi’s SIR draft roll

Virma, a 71-year-old resident of Malviya Nagar’s Jagdamba Camp, has been categorised as dead in the list published by Delhi Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) website containing names of those voters whose enumeration forms were marked “uncollectable” during enumeration phase of the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in Delhi.

Speaking to The HIndu on video, Ms. Virma said that she lives in Jagdamba Camp. “I am not dead. How can it be shown so? I am alive. I have voted in elections too. They can check.” She has questioned why she should enrol as a new voter when she has been voting for so long. “If it means I won’t be able to vote, then I must because I will vote till I am alive.”

Virma, a resident of Malviya Nagar’s Jagdamba Camp is another person marked as ‘dead’ following the first phase of the SIR in Delhi. Photo: Special Arrangement

She is not alone. Many people have claimed that they have been wrongly marked “permanently shifted”, “absent” or “dead”, some despite submitting forms.

Some 28-kilometres away, in Northwest Delhi’s Sultanpur Majra, 36-year-old Kanta Prasad has also been marked “dead” in the ASDD list. He attended a press conference organised by Voter Adhikar Manch (VAM) on Tuesday (September 8, 2026) to highlight the discrepancies in the draft roll and the ASDD list. He said that while he has been a voter from the same address for many years, he didn’t receive his enumeration forms while his wife and children did.

In the draft list published on August 31, 97.53 lakh were included in the roll from the 1.45 crore electors whose enumeration forms were generated. 47.56 lakh names were removed and placed under ASDD.

The Manch raised concerns over the deletions that occurred even before SIR began, as the electoral roll of the 2025 Assembly elections had 1.56 crore names, while the one frozen before SIR were 1.45 crore. They highlighted that roll on which the SIR was conducted in Delhi has not been released in public domain.

A door-to-door audit by Jan Sarokar, and Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS) in Block Y, Mangolpuri, found that over 450 electors were verified as present at their addresses despite being placed on the ASDD list, while more than 500 others were found to be still residing at their addresses but were neither included in the draft SIR roll nor the ASDD list. The audit covered 1,448 of 1,516 houses and documented 153 cases at a public hearing.

In a statement released on Tuesday (September 8, 2026), Delhi CEO office said that electors marked ASDD by the BLOs are those who were not available/found shifted at the registered address of the electors during their house-to house visit during the period on the basis of local enquiry.

“In case any elector was unable to submit their filled-in enumeration forms or having claim of being genuine elector, they may file Form 6 along with the prescribed declaration form for inclusion during the ongoing claims and objections period till September 30 to include their name in final electoral roll to be published on November 4,” it said. 

The Manch has demanded that SIR, in its present form, be withdrawn and the voter roll used for the 2025 Assembly elections restored. It has also sought restoration of voters wrongly marked ASDD, as well as those excluded from the SIR lists, without requiring existing voters to register as new voters through Form 6. It has demanded that the claims and objections period be extended by at least a month.