Most notices were issued for voter details not matching with the information in the last Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls in 2002.
Responding to a critical post over the name of late economist Bibek Debroy appearing in the list of voters being issued notices for discrepancies, Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said, “Actually at work here is a Method Of Disenfranchising Indians.”
Ramesh posted the words “Method Of Disenfranchising Indians” vertically so the the first capital letter of every word together read – “MODI”.
His remarks come a day after the Congress flagged the issue of large-scale deletions during the ongoing SIR exercise and alleged that it is actually a massive “Shah Instigated Removal” of voters and an “assault on the Constitution”.
The opposition party said there is abundant evidence to prove that large-scale deletions across states are overwhelmingly those of voters belonging to the most economically and socially disadvantaged and deprived sections of the society.In a statement on Sunday, Ramesh said the Election Commission began Phase-1 of the SIR process in June 2025 in Bihar and subsequently Phase-2 was launched in November 2025 across nine states and three union rerritories (UTs).
In Phase-1 and Phase-2, names of 7.8 crore voters were deleted, Ramesh said in his statement. The deletion rate as a proportion of the pre-SIR electoral roll works out to 13 per cent, he said.
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Phase-3 commenced in 16 states and three UTs in mid-2026, the Congress leader said. He pointed out that in the ongoing Phase-3, according to the data on 12 states and two UTs, names of 6.18 crore voters out of a total of 36.06 crore have been deleted.
Opposition parties have dubbed the SIR a ploy to target electors not aligned to the BJP and its allies.
The Election Commission, however, has maintained that the revision, being held after 22 years, will cleanse the voters’ list of ineligible people, duplicate entries and include those eligible as per law to vote.
