Unconstitutional SIR must be stopped, all illegitimately deleted voters must be restored: Congress

Jairam Ramesh addresses a press conference after the party meeting on October 19, 2026 | Photo credit: ANI

Congress on Monday (October 19, 2026) termed “wrongful deletion” in the Special Intensive Review (SIR) of electoral rolls and demanded an immediate halt to the “unconstitutional” process and restoration of the list of all voters who were illegitimately deleted.

Congress general secretary in charge of communications Jairam Ramesh shared a screenshot of a media report which claimed that at least 100 voters from two polling stations in Delhi’s Okhla constituency were wrongly classified as absent, shifted, dead or duplicate (ASDD) during special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. The report cited a public audit covering 258 households over seven days.

The vast majority of deletions in the disastrous SIR process were in the ASDD category: Absent, Shifted, Dead, and Duplicate. The BJP and its unofficial mouthpieces are using this to defend SIR as “cleaning the voter rolls”. However, a public audit by civil society organizations in Delhi revealed widespread unauthorized deletion taking place in the name of “ASDD”. In just 2 polling stations, they found at least 100 voters wrongly deleted under “ASDD” – most in the Moved or Absent categories. In these 2 categories alone, more than 9 million voters were wiped across the country. How many of them are actual disenfranchised voters? The reports also reveal the reality of the “special camps” and door-to-door visits promised by the Election Commission of India in its various damage control press notes. Many wrongfully deleted voters are unaware of these camps and have not been contacted by their Booth Level Officers (BLOs). It should not be civil society but the European Citizens’ Initiative itself that cleans up the mess that has caused its disastrous SIR. The illegal and unconstitutional SIR process must be stopped immediately. All wrongfully deleted voters must be returned to the voter rolls.

— Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) October 19, 2026

Mr Ramesh said the vast majority of deletions in the “disastrous” SIR process were in the ASDD category – Absent, Shifted, Dead and Duplicate.

“The BJP and its unofficial mouthpieces are using this to defend SIR as ‘cleaning the voter rolls’,” he said on X.

Mr. Ramesh pointed out that a public audit of civil society organizations in Delhi had revealed widespread unauthorized deletions taking place in the name of “ASDD”.

“In just 2 polling stations they found at least 100 voters who were wrongly deleted under ‘ASDD’ – most in the Deletion or Absentee categories. Over 9 million voters were deleted across the country in these 2 categories alone. How many of them are actual voters who were denied the right to vote?” he said.

“The reports also reveal the reality of the ‘special camps’ and door-to-door visits promised by the Election Commission of India in its various damage control press notes,” he said.

“Many of the wrongfully deleted voters are not aware of these camps and have not been contacted by their Booth Level Officers (BLOs),” Mr. Ramesh said.

“It should not be civil society but the ECI itself that cleans up the mess created by its disastrous SIR. The illegal and unconstitutional process of SIR must be stopped immediately. All illegitimately deleted voters must be restored to the electoral roll,” demanded Mr. Ramesh.

Last week, the Congress termed the Special Intensive Review (SIR) as “illegal and unconstitutional” and demanded that the exercise be frozen and the names of all legitimate voters restored to the electoral roll.

Mr. Ramesh described SIR as a “method of knocking out Indians”.

Mr. Ramesh’s remarks come amid a raging row after The Indian Express reported that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had recorded at least 14 objections to decisions and orders, mostly related to the SIR process, in the last 10 months.

The EC said that different opinions and observations are part of the proceedings in any institution and all its orders are fully sanctioned and follow the established legal procedures.

Published – 19 Oct 2026 19:29 IST