Rahul Gandhi visits JJ cluster in Bela Estate, questions deletion of voters’ names from SIR draft roll

Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Monday visited a jhuggi-jhopri (JJ) cluster on the Yamuna floodplains in the Bela Estate polling area, where the names of 728 of the 729 voters were left out of the draft electoral roll under the ongoing special intensive revision (SIR) exercise in Delhi.

Mr. Gandhi said the exclusion of voters’ names was “unjustified”.

The issue centres on residents who continued to live at the same address in makeshift shelters after their houses were demolished by the Delhi Development Authority in 2023.

The residents said they had submitted their enumeration forms during the revision, but of the 729 voters on the pre-SIR electoral roll for the area, the names of 728 were still placed in the absent, shifted, dead or duplicate (ASDD) voters list. According to Kamal Lal, a resident, about 550 of them continue to live in the cluster and 496 have since submitted Form 6 applications seeking inclusion in the final roll as new voters.

“Today, I went to their jhuggi and heard directly from them what the Election Commission has done to them,” Mr. Gandhi wrote in a post on X after meeting the residents.

‘No connection to votes’

The senior Congress leader said the demolition of their houses should not determine their right to vote. “Having a house or not has no connection to the right to vote. These people have been living here for decades. They have already voted in the 2024 Lok Sabha election and the 2025 Delhi election,” he added.

Mr. Gandhi claimed Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar had earlier stated that enumerators could enter “house number 0” in the forms of homeless voters.

Mr. Lal said the Congress leader asked the residents to meet him at his office on Tuesday. “He will raise our issue of rehabilitation,” he said.

Mr. Gandhi said he had spoken to the area Sub-Divisional Magistrate about the issue.

‘Visit not needed’

Meanwhile, Delhi Chief Electoral Officer Ashok Kumar’s office stated in a release that electors who have received notices over “no mapping” or “logical discrepancies” will not have to visit the assigned centres to submit documents. Booth Level Officers will instead visit their houses to collect the required documents, the statement added.

“The documents will subsequently be uploaded on the ECINet platform for the Electoral Registration Officer to take a decision on their eligibility,” read the statement.

The development came after the CEO chaired a review meeting on Monday, where District Election Officers were directed to inform EROs, Assistant EROs, BLOs and their supervisors and ensure implementation.

According to the release, hearings will be held only in exceptional cases, preferably online, if deemed necessary by the ERO.

“An adult family member may also be authorised by an elector to attend a hearing on their behalf. The EROs are required to dispose of all the notices by November 30,” the release added.