India voter roll revision removes an estimated 130 million names

An estimated 130 million names have been removed from India's voter rolls during a revision process that began in June of last year. While the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has defended the revision, critics and election specialists suggest the scale of deletions represents a massive disenfranchisement of citizens.

Prominent critics, including former chief election commissioner SY Quraishi and elections specialist Yogendra Yadav, have raised concerns regarding the independence of the election commission. Critics allege that the process may be engineered to favor the ruling party, with Quraishi stating, “Normally voters choose the government, here the government was choosing the voters.”

In local communities, such as the Bela Slum in New Delhi, residents have reported significant numbers of adults being deleted from rolls, often discovering the changes only through political party representatives. The voter rolls previously contained approximately 980 million names.