AAP Delhi president Saurabh Bharadwaj termed the ongoing SIR exercise a ‘fraud’.
| Photo Credit: FILE

External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader L.K. Advani, Election Commissioner Sukhbir Singh Sandhu, and former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia were among several prominent names on Delhi’s draft electoral roll to be identified for notices either for “logical discrepancies” flagged by the Election Commission’s (EC’s) software or under the “no mapping” category.

Economist and Padma awardee Bibek Debroy, who died in November 2024, also figures in Delhi’s draft roll and has been flagged for “no mapping” with the previous Special Intensive Revision (SIR) roll.

Notices are being generated to verify documents in cases of logical discrepancies in electors’ records and to establish eligibility in cases of “no mapping”. A list of those for whom notices were generated was published on Friday (September 18, 2026). It was reported on Saturday that Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta, former Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, and former Union Ministers Kapil Sibal and Subramanian Swamy were among those on the list.

Debroy, who had served as chairman of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council and was 69 when he passed away, is listed as a 70-year-old elector in the Delhi Cantonment Assembly constituency in the draft electoral roll published on August 31, The Hindu has found. He has further been listed in the list of 33.1 lakh electors against whom notices have been issued. A notice was generated against his name because his record is unmapped to the previous SIR roll.

Under the EC’s guidelines for the SIR, the draft electoral roll was prepared on the basis of duly filled enumeration forms received and successfully verified by booth-level officers (BLOs). The guidelines also state that members of the judiciary, public representatives, holders of declared offices and personalities from fields including arts, culture, journalism, sports and public service are to be included in the draft roll so that necessary documents can be collected during the claims and objections period.

However, Debroy’s name had remained on Delhi’s electoral roll through the 2025 Assembly election, despite deletions carried out during the subsequent summary revision, pre-SIR mapping exercise and during enumeration phase.

Current and former election officials

A voter in Delhi Cantonment constituency, Election Commissioner Mr. Sandhu’s name was flagged for the “self-name mismatch” discrepancy, which means a mismatch between the name given during the current SIR process and the previous roll. The electoral registration officer (ERO) of the constituency later said in a press note that Mr. Sandhu’s name has been validated for inclusion in the final electoral roll after “documents, facts, and details” were verified.

Notices were also generated for two former Chief Election Commissioners (CEC) of India. Sushil Chandra and wife Neelu Chandra have been flagged for “no mapping with previous SIR”. The same reason was also given for former CEC Arun Goel’s notice. Mr. Chandra served as 24th CEC from 2021 to 2022, and Mr. Goel served from 2022 till he resigned from the role ahead of the general elections in 2024.

Other prominent figures

Mr. Jaishankar and his wife, Kyoko Somekawa Jaishankar, have also been flagged for notice for “no mapping” with the last SIR. For the same reason, former BJP IT cell head Amit Malviya has been issued a notice, while “self name mismatch” has been flagged in the case of his wife, Gauri Malviya.

Also in the unmapped category were Mr. Advani, his daughter Pratibha Advani and daughter-in-law Geetika Advani. Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri’s name was also in the list under the same category.

Several other prominent names also figure in the list. In the Jangpura constituency, sociologist and social psychologist Ashis Nandy, senior advocates Indira Jaising and Anand Grover, and political communications consultant Dilip Cherian were flagged for notices, all marked “unmapped with Last SIR”. Journalist Sheela Bhatt was flagged for a “self-name mismatch” and senior advocate Huzefa Ahmadi for no mapping. In Kalkaji constituency, economist Deepak Nayyar was flagged for a “parent name mismatch”.

No reason given

While Mr. Sisodia and his family have been flagged for notices, no reason has been given for why he was on the list. For his wife, Seema Sisodia, “self-name mismatch” has been cited and “parent name mismatch” has been cited for their son, Meer Sisodia.

In the case of Congress MP Abhishek Manu Singhvi, too, the slot for the reason his name was flagged was left blank.

There are at least 63,000 such entries in the list where the column for the reason for which notices were generated remained blank, as per analysis by The Hindu.

Mr. Sibal held a press conference over his and his wife’s names being flagged for notices, and said that his enumeration form was duly filled with his details from the 2002 SIR roll of Bihar and handed to the BLO. Despite this, the EC software has flagged him for being “unmapped with the last SIR”, he said. 

Complaints

Delhi has, meanwhile, seen complaints from citizens who said their names were missing from the draft roll despite submitting enumeration forms, as well as cases of electors being wrongly marked “dead” or “shifted”. A total of 47.56 lakh voters have been excluded from the draft roll and placed in the ASDD (absent, shifted, dead or duplicate) category.

The 33.1 lakh electors flagged for logical discrepancies or no mapping constitute over one-third of the 97.5 lakh electors in the draft roll. Verification and disposal of these cases are to be completed by October 29, with the final electoral roll scheduled to be published on November 4.

The list also includes public figures such as former Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar and his wife Sudesh Dhankhar, former Supreme Court judge Justice Madan B. Lokur, Delhi Minister Parvesh Sahib Singh, former Delhi BJP president Virendra Kumar Sachdeva, historian Romila Thapar and New Delhi MP Bansuri Swaraj.

Electors in the “no mapping” category will have to establish their eligibility by submitting documents from the 12 documents prescribed by the EC for the verification process.

A senior election official said prominent leaders and other well-known personalities would not be required to visit hearing centres. Electoral Registration Officers will prepare a list of such cases and direct Booth Level Officers to visit their registered addresses to verify the records and resolve the discrepancies, the official said.

Published – September 20, 2026 12:23 pm IST

Kanta Prasad of Northwest Delhi’s Sultanpur Majra is one of the several people whose names have been removed from the electoral roll, after being categorised as ‘dead’. Photo: Special Arrangement

Pooja Devi, 38, has been living at the same address in Kalkaji for the past two decades, employed in domestic work, raising her children, and regularly voting in elections. When the special intensive revision of electoral rolls began in the national capital in June, however, she did not get any enumeration form. Once the draft roll was published, she hoped to find her name in the list of those removed because they were absent, shifted, dead, or with duplicate names, known as the ASDD list, but her name was missing there too.

“My husband and children received their forms but I did not. I had also voted in the 2025 elections with them. My name is nowhere,” she said, flummoxed by the booth-level officer’s claim that no form was generated in her name.

Ms. Devi seems to be among the 13.39 lakh voters whose names were deleted from the electoral roll in Delhi this year, even before the SIR process started in June, according to The Hindu’s analysis of data available on the website of Delhi’s Chief Electoral Officer (CEO). The period from January to June was earmarked for ‘preparatory’ measures, including pre-SIR mapping by BLOs. Among the 17 States where the third phase of the SIR is now ongoing, Delhi is the only one to have seen this massive rate of deletion of names during the preparatory period itself.

Also Read | Delhi SIR: notices for over 33 lakh people to be issued only in English

Shrinking electorate

At the time of Assembly elections in February 2025, Delhi’s electorate stood at 1.56 crore voters. By June 16 this year, when the electoral roll was frozen before the SIR started, this had dropped to 1.45 crore, a decrease of 11.03 lakh names. A major chunk, 93%, of these names were removed during the five months of the pre-SIR mapping phase.

After the SIR started, a further 47.56 lakh names have been deleted in the draft roll published on August 31, meaning that so far, 37.6% or well over a third of the voters in the electoral roll during the 2025 Assembly election are no longer part of Delhi’s electorate.

Apart from the 13.39 lakh deletions since January, 1.65 lakh names were added to the roll during the five-month pre-SIR mapping period, while there were modifications in another 2.83 lakh voters’ names. This means that the net change between January and June 2026 was to shrink the electoral roll by 10.28 lakh names.

Also Read | Voter lists shrink by more than 15% since 2024 in States where SIR phase-3 draft lists are out

‘Continuous updation’

A senior official claimed this was a routine exercise. “This was part of the continous updation of rolls, for dead, duplicate and permanently shifted voters,” he said. However, he could not explain the large number of deletions.

For instance, in the entire period between February and December 2025, there were only 75,313 net deletions; over the next five months however, there were lakhs of deletions each month, peaking at 3.39 lakh names in April 2026 alone, according to The Hindu’s analysis of the ‘monthly polling summary of additions, deletions, and modifications’ available on the Delhi CEO website. Also, this list does not indicate the reason for deletion, whether absent, shifted, dead, or duplicates, unlike the list of names removed after the SIR enumeration phase.

Also Read | Delhi High Court rejects plea alleging exclusion of homeless from voter list due to SIR

‘Unprecedented’

Former Chief Election Commissioner of India S.Y. Quraishi termed the pre-SIR deletions in Delhi as “highly unusual” and “unprecedented”.

“This information should have come from the Election Commission itself. They should have issued a list of voter names removed, and explained the reasons for this scale of deletion. There should be no mystery or secrecy about this leading to investigations and speculations,” he told The Hindu.

Mr. Kumar and his office did not respond to The Hindu’s queries on the exercise, including whether notices were served to those whose names were deleted during the pre-SIR mapping exercise.

Also Read | Delhi SIR documents differ on categorisation of voters left out

Continuous updation rules

According to the Election Commission’s rules, continuous updation of the electoral roll happens through individual applications for new enrolments or objections, with BLO field verification required in cases of unregistered deaths and shifting of voters, only after receiving Form-7. In all such cases, a notice must be issued. The Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) can also take up deletions, corrections, or shifting of names suo motu, based on the BLO’s field report, with the stipulation that individual names must be displayed publicly before they are deleted.

There is no draft roll or claims and objections period for such routine updating exercises, unlike for special revisions. If more than 2% of electors are removed or where the same person objects to more than five cases, the ERO is required to personally verify the deletions to ensure accuracy, the EC rules say.

In the annual summary revision and the SIR, on the other hand, the existing roll is revised as a whole. A draft roll is published after door-to-door visits by the BLO, claims and objections are invited and processed, after which the revised final roll is published.

Pre-SIR mapping was carried out in Delhi to map the voters with the 2002 electoral roll to ease the burden on the BLOs during the SIR itself, and 43% of electors were mapped, as per information shared by Delhi CEO Ashok Kumar earlier. However, no information was shared on the deletions done.

Also Read | Delhi draft electoral roll out: How to check your name

Highest deletions in Delhi West

The pre-SIR deletions were much larger than in previous special summary revisions (SSR) in Delhi. The SSR undertaken just after the 2024 Lok Sabha election and before 2025 Assembly election, for instance, had seen only 1.41 lakh deletions, while the final roll saw a net increase in the size of the electorate, due to a higher number of new names added to the voter list.

During the continuous updation between February and December 2025, there were 75,313 deletions in total, woth several months in which no deletion requests were processed at all.

In 2026, however, there were lakhs of deletions each month across all constituencies, with the highest rate of deletions reported in April with 3.39 lakh, followed by May with 3 lakh. March followed with 2.5 lakh and February with 2 lakh.

Delhi West district reported the highest overall deletions of 2.32 lakh, followed by the North West (1.99 lakh), South West (1.40 lakh) and South East (1.39 lakh) districts. These are also the districts which saw the highest deletions during the SIR enumeration phase.

Other States that saw net reductions in their electorates between the 2024 Lok Sabha election and the beginning of the SIR were Uttarakhand (3.2 lakh), Arunachal Pradesh, Punjab, Odisha (2 lakh), and Chandigarh. Another 11 States reported net additions in their electorates.

The petitioners challenged the mandate requiring BLAs of political parties to give a personal undertaking certifying they have personally verified all details in the enumeration forms.
| Photo Credit: Sushil Kumar Verma

Door-to-door SIR exercise being conducted in Delhi.
| Photo Credit: Shiv Kumar Pushpakar

With over 33 lakh voters set to face notices and hearings after the draft electoral roll is published on August 31, Booth Level Officers (BLOs) have flagged gaps in their training ahead of the next phase of special intensive revision (SIR) in Delhi.

The claims and objections phase, which begins with the publication of the draft roll, will require BLOs to deliver notices, explain documentation requirements and assist people whose names do not appear in the roll. The month-long process will run until September 30, while the notice and disposal process will continue until October 29.

Delhi has 1.45 crore electors. The 33.15 lakh figure, based on data compiled as of August 18 after the enumeration phase ended, includes 13.79 lakh voters whose enumeration forms could not be mapped to the previous SIR roll and 19.36 lakh whose forms were flagged for anomalies. These cases will be taken up for verification from the draft roll, which will carry the names of 97.5 lakh voters whose forms were collected, digitised, and verified. 

The remaining 47.6 lakh names frozen on June 16 will not appear in the draft roll and have been categorised into Absent, Shifted, Dead, Duplicate and Others (ASDDO). The ‘Others’ category includes voters who refused to return or sign the enumeration form, or share details, according to officials. For the eligible citizens whose names don’t appear in the roll, or wrongly appear in the ASDDO list, the next phase is crucial for filing Form 6 as a claim, and enrolling as a new voter. A separate PDF listing these voters will also be published on August 31. 

BLOs flag lack of training 

The scale of the exercise will make the claims and objections phase considerably more demanding than the enumeration process, particularly for BLOs, who will have to deliver notices, guide voters on the documents required and help process claims from those whose names do not appear in the draft, said a senior election official. 

“Till now, our work was largely about collecting and verifying forms. From August 31, voters will come to us with questions about notices, documents, Form 6, and the declaration. We need clear instructions on what exactly we are expected to tell them,” said a BLO in the southeast district. 

The concern was echoed by BLOs in the northeast and south districts, who said that while officials had indicated that training had been conducted, they had not received a detailed briefing on the procedures to be followed after publication of the draft. “The difficulty will be explaining to a voter why their name is not in the draft or why they have received a notice, and what document they have to submit. The declaration is also something our supervisors have said will be explained to us on Monday,” the BLO in the northeast district said. 

Senior officials, however, said training had been imparted to BLOs in the week following the end of the enumeration phase. 

A BLO in south district said the changes in polling stations could also lead to queries from voters as the new polling booth number will reflect in the draft roll. The district has seen the addition of 243 polling booths as part of the rationalisation process to limit voters to 1,200 per booth, taking Delhi’s total booth count from 13,033 to 14,947. “The number of polling stations has increased, so some electors may have been shifted to another booth. We will have to help voters check their updated polling station details as well as deal with claims and objections,” the BLO said. However, officials confirmed that additional BLOs will be appointed to these new booths, so for many voters, their assigned BLOs will change.

All the notices will be delivered by the BLOs and will carry the scheduled date of the hearing, where the elector will have to appear with one of the prescribed documents. The anomalies will not be mentioned against voters’ names in the draft roll, the official said. Instead, notices specifying the discrepancy will be prepared and delivered by BLOs. The voters can submit the required documents through the BLO or appear before the Electoral Registration Officers (EROs)/Assistant Electoral Registration Officers (AEROs).

While data anomalies specific to Delhi are yet to be mapped, the software is currently flagging 11 discrepancies based on trends observed in other states, officials said. These include parent-child age mismatch, with gaps of under 15 or over 50 years or short birth intervals. Another unlisted anomaly is name mismatch between the current and previous SIR rolls.

Claims and objections 

The claims and objections process that provides a route into the final roll to be published in November will also be scrutinised by the respective EROs. They will also issue notices to those applicants whose previous SIR details provided in the Declaration Form with Form 6 are either unavailable or do not match the database. The prescribed documents vary according to the voter’s year of birth, with additional documents relating to parents required for those born between 1987 and 2004 and for those born after 2004.

Form 7, used for deletion, can be filled to object to another voter’s inclusion, while Form 8 allows corrections or changes of address. Form 7 cases are to be disposed of within 15 days, and Forms 6 and 8 within seven days. Party-appointed Booth-Level Agents (BLAs) can submit up to 10 forms a day on behalf of citizens. 

The minutes of meetings between BLOs and party-appointed BLAs, which include details of forms distributed and returned and the ASDDO lists handed over to parties, will be published along with the draft roll.

Published – August 30, 2026 12:54 am IST