India voter register deletions spark outrage

Mass voter deletions in several polls-bound states have called into question the legitimacy of these elections and sparked an uproar among voters and opposition parties.



Faridul Islam’s name is among the 9.1 million that have been deleted ahead of India’s West Bengal state’s local election from April 23 to 29.

A fashion designer at a Kolkata garment company, he was struck off the rolls because the voter list recorded his name in a manner that was different from all his other documents.



Protests were reported in the opposition-governed states of West Bengal and Tamil Nadu, among the five that are due to hold local elections in 2026.



The Supreme Court criticised the exercise for using arbitrary conditions and opaque artificial intelligence software.



The voter list clean-up, called the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), is conducted by the Election Commission of India (ECI) and has been ongoing since July 2025, outside of its regular review.