📷 Image: Wikimedia Commons / Chongkian
Politics
13 Crore Voters Stripped from Draft Electoral Rolls Amid Election Commission Dispute
✍️ RTV English
🗓 27 Sep 2026, 04:47 AM
👁 9
Around 130 million names have been deleted from the draft electoral rolls following a disagreement within the Election Commission, raising questions about the list’s completeness ahead of upcoming polls.
The Election Commission has announced that approximately 130 million entries have been removed from the draft electoral rolls. The decision comes after a reported discord among senior officials of the commission regarding the criteria for inclusion and verification of voters.
Sources within the commission said the removal was part of a broader effort to clean the rolls, but the internal disagreement delayed the finalisation of the list. Officials are now working to reconcile their positions to ensure the roll reflects eligible voters accurately.
The large-scale deletion has sparked concerns among political parties and civil‑society groups, who fear that eligible voters could be inadvertently excluded. The commission has pledged to address any grievances before the next election cycle.
Election experts note that such a massive adjustment to the draft rolls is unusual and underscores the challenges of maintaining an up‑to‑date voter database in a country of over 1.4 billion people.
The commission has not yet released a detailed timeline for the revised roll’s publication, but it has assured the public that the final list will be made available well before the scheduled elections.
Sources within the commission said the removal was part of a broader effort to clean the rolls, but the internal disagreement delayed the finalisation of the list. Officials are now working to reconcile their positions to ensure the roll reflects eligible voters accurately.
The large-scale deletion has sparked concerns among political parties and civil‑society groups, who fear that eligible voters could be inadvertently excluded. The commission has pledged to address any grievances before the next election cycle.
Election experts note that such a massive adjustment to the draft rolls is unusual and underscores the challenges of maintaining an up‑to‑date voter database in a country of over 1.4 billion people.
The commission has not yet released a detailed timeline for the revised roll’s publication, but it has assured the public that the final list will be made available well before the scheduled elections.