Congress calls SIR ‘Shah Instigated Removal’, flags large-scale voter deletions

Jairam Ramesh attacks Union home minister Amit Shah.

NEW DELHI: Congress on Sunday took a swipe at Union home minister Amit Shah over the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, alleging that it was a “Shah Instigated Removal” of voters.Congress general secretary in-charge of communications Jairam Ramesh said the Election Commission began 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 Jairam Ramesh, 7.8 crore names were deleted during the first two phases, amounting to 13% of the pre-SIR electoral roll.Jairam said Phase 3 began in 16 states and three Union Territories in mid-2026. Citing data from 12 states and two UTs, he claimed that 6.18 crore names had been deleted from a total of 36.06 crore voters.“The deletion rate works out to over 17% 2. An additional 5.43 crore voters have been issued notices demanding additional documentation to have their names retained on the electoral roll. The risk of deletion rate works to another 15%. This is an unusually high proportion that reflects structural flaws in the entire SIR process,” Jairam said.He questioned how such a large number of voters could still be required to undergo verification after the deletion of millions of names.“Thus, a staggering 32% (or about one in three) of voters have had their names deleted or face risk of deletion,” Jairam added.He cited Delhi, Chandigarh, Jharkhand, Uttarakhand, Meghalaya, Maharashtra, Telangana, Karnataka, Haryana, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and Punjab as states and UTs where he claimed a significant proportion of voters had either been deleted or faced the risk of deletion.The Congress leader also alleged that large-scale deletions were disproportionately affecting voters from economically and socially disadvantaged sections. He further claimed that, in most major states, more women than men had been removed from electoral rolls during the SIR process.Jairam said the exercise had shifted the burden of verification from the state to citizens, who were being asked to produce documents that they may never have been issued. “A test that the overwhelming majority of citizens cannot pass is just a ‘machine for exclusion’,” he said.“SIR is actually a massive Shah Instigated Removal of voters. It is an assault on our Constitution,” he added.Tagging his statement on X, he wrote, “SIR is actually a Shah Instigated Removal of voters on a massive scale. Here is a statement on this brazen assault on our Constitution itself.”

Jairam also said voter lists facing deletion risks had been made publicly available in Karnataka, Telangana and Jharkhand, allowing voters to check their names. He claimed Delhi made its list public only on September 19, 2026, following public pressure, while other BJP-ruled states and Punjab had not done so.The Election Commission has maintained that the SIR, being conducted after 22 years, is aimed at cleaning electoral rolls by removing ineligible and duplicate entries while ensuring that all eligible citizens are included in the rolls.Opposition parties have alleged that the exercise could target voters who do not support the BJP and its allies. The allegations have been rejected by the Election Commission, which has defended the revision as an exercise to ensure accurate and legally eligible electoral rolls.