Over 62 lakh voters deleted from Gujarat rolls since Jan 2025, activist raises concerns

By A Representative 

Ahmedabad: More than 62 lakh voters have been deleted from Gujarat’s electoral rolls since January 2025, according to data compiled from official records, prompting concerns from election transparency advocates.

Figures drawn from the 2024 Lok Sabha election data, the January 2025 final electoral roll, and the 2026 Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process published by the Election Commission of India show a significant drop in registered electors in the state.

During the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Gujarat had 4,97,96,232 registered voters. Following the Brief Summary Revision conducted between October and December 2024, the final roll published in early January 2025 recorded 5,03,15,260 electors.

However, under the SIR 2026 process, the draft roll listed 4,34,70,109 voters, while the final roll recorded 4,40,30,725 electors.

This indicates a deletion of 62,84,535 voters between January 2025 and the SIR 2026 final roll. Compared to the 2024 Lok Sabha election figures, the decline stands at 57,65,507 voters.

Pankti Jog, activist with Gujarat Election Watch, said the scale of deletions warrants scrutiny. “The above figures reveal that in Gujarat the number of voters has decreased considerably,” she said.

Jog noted that before publishing the draft roll, the Election Commission had uploaded booth-wise lists categorising electors as “shifted”, “dead”, and “absent”, but did not release consolidated totals for these categories. She said the reduction in numbers appears linked to these classifications.

“Did the ECI cross-check whether people in the ‘shifted’ and ‘absent’ categories were not eligible voters? Officially, we do not see any provision in SIR 2026 to verify this status,” she said.

She further pointed out that during the 2002 SIR exercise, there was a provision to map voters from their place of origin to their destination in cases of relocation. “There may be eligible voters who have not filled the enumeration form simply because they were not present during the enumeration process,” Jog said.

The Election Commission has not issued a detailed public clarification on the cumulative figures of deletions under the SIR 2026 exercise.

The data referenced in the analysis is drawn from official statistical reports of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, media reports quoting the Chief Electoral Officer of Gujarat in January 2025, and the SIR final roll data published by the Commission.