The Congress on Sunday (September 20, 2026) flagged the issue of large-scale deletions during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls being carried out by the Election Commission, alleging that the SIR is actually a massive “Shah Instigated Removal” of voters and an “assault on the Constitution”.
Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said the Election Commission of India (ECI) began Phase-1 of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process of the electoral rolls in June 2025 in Bihar and subsequently Phase-2 was launched in November 2025 across nine states and three Union Territories (UTs). In Phase-1 and Phase-2, names of 7.8 crore voters were deleted, Mr.
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. Ramesh said in a statement.
Mr. This is an unusually high proportion that reflects structural flaws in the entire SIR process,” Mr. “SIR is actually a massive Shah Instigated Removal of voters. Tagging his statement on X, Mr. Here is a statement on this brazen assault on our Constitution itself. Opposition parties had dubbed the SIR as a ploy to target electors not aligned to the BJP and its allies.
Ramesh pointed out that in this on-going 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. “The deletion rate works out to over 17% 2. An additional 5.43 crore voters have been issued notices demanding additional documentation to have their names retained on the electoral roll. The risk of deletion rate works to another 15%.
Ramesh said. It is an assault on our Constitution,” the Congress general secretary said in an apparent reference to Home Minister Amit Shah. Ramesh said, “SIR is actually a Shah Instigated Removal of voters on a massive scale.
