Gujarat minority body seeks booth-wise data on 9.56 lakh new voters in final SIR list

By A Representative 

The Minority Coordination Committee Gujarat has written to the Chief Electoral Officer of Gujarat seeking detailed disclosures regarding the final Special Intensive Revision (SIR) list of voters published on February 17, raising concerns over additions, deletions and alleged irregularities in Form 7 submissions.

In a letter addressed to the Chief Electoral Officer in Gandhinagar, the Committee’s convener Mujahid Nafees called for booth-wise data on the 9.56 lakh new voters added to the electoral rolls and the more than 3.95 lakh voters whose names were deleted. He urged that the details be placed in the public domain to ensure transparency.

According to the letter, the SIR process began on October 27, 2025, with Booth Level Officers (BLOs) conducting door-to-door verification. The Committee stated that some BLOs worked under “extreme mental pressure” during the exercise and referred to reports of deaths and a case of suicide allegedly linked to stress during the revision process.

The Committee noted that the draft SIR list had reportedly shown deletion of 74 lakh voters. In the final published list, a total of 4,40,30,725 voters remain on the rolls. Compared to the previous electoral roll, the Committee claimed there is a reduction of 62,84,535 voters.

While the Election Commission has announced the addition of 9.56 lakh new voters in the final list, the Committee questioned the deletion of 3,95,555 names and demanded booth-wise disclosure of both additions and deletions. “The Election Commission must make public which booths have seen how many additions and how many deletions,” Nafees said in the letter.

The Committee also raised questions about Form 7 applications, which are used to object to or seek deletion of names from electoral rolls. It stated that the Election Commission had earlier indicated that 12,59,229 objections were received through Form 7. The letter questioned how such a large number of printed Form 7 applications allegedly came into the possession of workers of a political party and sought details of the officials who authorised their printing and distribution.

The Committee has demanded disclosure of who submitted the bulk Form 7 applications and called for the release of CCTV footage from Election Commission offices where the forms were deposited.

Citing provisions of law, the Committee said that filing false Form 7 applications constitutes a criminal offence and demanded that FIRs be registered and criminal proceedings initiated against those allegedly involved in any “planned conspiracy” to submit wrongful objections.

The Minority Coordination Committee said the Election Commission, as an autonomous constitutional body, has the responsibility to ensure that no citizen is deprived of the right to vote and that the integrity of the electoral roll is maintained.