Delhi SIR: Public audit in two booths finds over 100 voters wrongly marked as absent, shifted or dead

At least 100 voters from two polling stations in Delhi’s Okhla constituency were found to have been wrongly classified as absent, shifted, dead or duplicate (ASDD) during the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, a public audit covering 258 households in seven days.

Also read | Muslims disproportionately tagged in Delhi SIR

These voters, who said their names were wrongfully missing from the draft electoral roll in Delhi, appeared at the Jan Sunwai, or public hearing, held in the Batla House area of the national capital on Sunday (October 18, 2026). The event was organized by civil society organizations like Jan Sarokar, Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS), Voter Adhikar Manch and National Federation of Indian Women (NFIW).

The hearing was intended for residents of Blocks G and K, concerned polling stations 61 and 65, but repeated announcements attracted voters from other stations as well. More than 150 voters registered to present their cases to a panel comprising Supreme Court advocates Nayantara Roy and Sumit Hazarik and transparency activists Anjali Bhardwaj and Amrita Johri.

Okhla had more than 1.85 million voters in the draft list released after the SIR enumeration phase, of which more than 67,000 names were placed on the notification list and nearly 1.6 million appeared on the ASDD list. This constituency saw the second highest deletion rate.

Decades of residents affected

Among those who turned up was Faiyaz Ahmed, 74, a retired professor of mechanical engineering at Jamia Millia Islamia University. Despite living at the same address for more than five decades, Mr Ahmed was listed as “untraceable/absent”, while his wife Anjum Ara, 62, was listed as “permanently displaced” in the ASDD list published on August 31.

Faiyaz Ahmed, 74, was identified as untraceable after submitting a census form and had lived at the same address for more than 50 years. | Photo credit: Suruchi Kumari

“Should one person or one institution have the power to remove a citizen’s name from the electoral roll like this? I have voted in almost every election since the 1970s,” asked Mr Ahmed.

Their son, Babu Sardar Khan, said he had submitted duly filled enumeration forms for both his parents to the local booth level officer (BLO). However, only his own name appeared in the draft. Mr Khan collected Form 6, meant for registration of new voters, which is used by voters left out of the draft list, for both his parents. He will have to submit the forms to the BLO or the polling center of the constituency.

Naeemuddin, 48, who said he had lived at the same address for 30 years, was similarly described as “permanently displaced”. He said he visited the BLO who took his photographs and obtained his signature on the form.

Naeemuddin marked as permanently displaced | Photo credit: Suruchi Kumari

He furiously displayed a driver’s license from the 1990s and a firearms license, which he said required extensive documentation and verification. “How is it possible that I register as a new voter now and erase all my voting records? And why isn’t anyone from the electoral commission telling me this, but the social workers?” said Mr Naeemuddin, a former government adviser.

They don’t know about special camps

The office of the Chief Electoral Officer, Delhi, has been organizing special camps every weekend since September 20 in all polling stations with the stated objective of ensuring that “no eligible voter is left out”. Earlier this week, she also directed field officers to re-verify ASDD records through door-to-door visits and restore the names of eligible voters.

However, around 20 people who spoke to The Hindu said they were not aware of the special camps. Some attended the hearing because they did not know who their BLO was, while others said they had not been contacted by their BLO.

“We also invited the concerned BLO, Election Registration Officer, District Magistrate and ECI officials through the office of the Director General in Delhi but they did not come,” a statement from the organizers said.

“The only option is to log in again”

Tanvir Anwer said that when he went to collect the enumeration form, the BLO told him that his brother’s form was not available and his name was not in the voter list. He was told that his brother had been deleted before the review. However, the name Md. Farid Anwar appeared in the ASDD list, indicating that his enumeration form was marked as “uncollectible”. Mr. Anwer attended the hearing to clarify the next steps. The volunteer told him that the only option available was to apply for a new enrolment.

Like him, at least 110 people have collected copies of Form 6 and declaration seeking details of their or their relatives’ previous SIR records. Organizers said they printed out forms available online and directed voters to polling booths where BLOs were present as they were not authorized to collect applications themselves.

All applications received through Form 6 by 30 October will be considered for inclusion in the final list to be published on 4 December.

A curious case of Ravi (37), a resident of Okhla village also came to light. At the hearing, his wife Anita discovered through the EPIC ID number on the voter’s card that he was listed as “dead”. However, his entry was present in the proposal list under a different EPIC number. “This is an EPIC card that was issued to me in 2023 and how do I know that my EPIC number has been changed at the same address? I don’t have EPIC cards,” he said.

Published – 18 Oct 2026 22:16 IST