10 CRORE VOTERS SCRUTINISED, 1,600 FOREIGN NATIONALS IDENTIFIED: CONGRESS QUESTIONS SIR’S CENTRAL JUSTIFICATION
October 29, 2026
NEW DELHI, OCTOBER 29, 2026: The Congress has questioned the effectiveness of the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, citing a report that identified approximately 1,600 foreign nationals across six states after nearly 10 crore people underwent the verification exercise.
Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh raised the issue on Thursday, asking whether the large-scale revision had achieved its stated objective of identifying and removing foreign nationals allegedly registered as voters. The six states cited were Karnataka, Jharkhand, Meghalaya, Kerala, Goa and Mizoram.
According to the figures cited by Ramesh, Karnataka accounted for 716 identified foreign nationals, including 545 citizens of Nepal. He also pointed out that approximately 99.7 lakh names had been deleted from Karnataka’s electoral rolls, questioning the relationship between the scale of deletions and the number of foreign nationals identified.
Ramesh further stated that the other 20 states and Union Territories had not supplied comparable data because the Election Commission had not requested it. He argued that the absence of comprehensive information made it difficult to assess the nationwide results of the exercise.
The Congress leader accused the central government and the Election Commission of using SIR in a manner that could exclude eligible Indian voters. He demanded the suspension of the revision exercise, reforms to the ECINET digital platform and the removal of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. These allegations represent the Congress’s political position and have not been established as judicial findings.
The BJP, meanwhile, has defended SIR as a necessary measure to remove ineligible entries and ensure that electoral rolls contain the names of legitimate voters. BJP president Nitin Nabin has argued that the exercise is intended to eliminate questionable entries while protecting the voting rights of eligible Indian citizens.
The dispute centres on two competing concerns: preventing ineligible persons from remaining on electoral rolls and ensuring that genuine voters are not wrongly excluded. The figures cited by the Congress raise questions about the availability and comparability of nationwide data, but the number of foreign nationals identified alone does not establish the overall effectiveness or legality of SIR.
A comprehensive assessment would require consistent data from all participating states, clear explanations for deletions and safeguards ensuring that eligible citizens retain their constitutional right to vote.
