Now Reading: Voter deletions in Uttarakhand exceed 2022 victory margins in 45 seats
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Voter deletions in Uttarakhand exceed 2022 victory margins in 45 seats
Uttarakhand's Special Intensive Revision (SIR) 2026 has come under scrutiny after data showed that voter deletion requests in 45 assembly constituencies outnumber the winning margins from the 2022 election. In Kichha, 4,857…
Uttarakhand's Special Intensive Revision (SIR) 2026 has come under scrutiny after data showed that voter deletion requests in 45 assembly constituencies outnumber the winning margins from the 2022 election. In Kichha, 4,857 objections were filed, almost all by a single BJP booth-level agent, Rajesh Tiwari, who cited "already enrolled" as the ground. Kichha has about 28.4% Muslim electors, Congress won the seat in 2022 by over 10,000 votes.
In Gadarpur, BJP worker Chankit Huria filed all 670 deletion requests targeting Muslim voters. The seat was won by the BJP in 2022 by just 1,120 votes. In Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami's former constituency Khatima, 392 of 394 deletion requests came from BJP activist Amit Kumar Pandey. Dhami lost Khatima in 2022 by 6,579 votes. Congress has alleged the SIR is being used to systematically target minority voters and has demanded scrutiny from the Election Commission. The final roll is due on September 15.
Indian Opinion Analysis
The SIR is a routine electoral roll revision, but these deletions cluster in seats with substantial Muslim populations and narrow or lost margins, raising questions about due process. Under the Election Commission's 2023 handbook, any person can object to a voter's inclusion, but the BLO must verify each case. The concentration of objections from single BJP workers suggests organised, not individual, scrutiny. The Congress complaint to the EC could lead to a hearing or a direction for re-verification. The EC's response, and whether it orders a freeze on deletions until September 15, will be the next signal to watch.
This pattern echoes pre-2019 allegations in Uttar Pradesh and Delhi, where bulk objections targeted minority voters, leading the EC to issue stricter verification guidelines in 2023.
Source: nationalheraldindia.com
This brief was synthesised by AI from the source linked above.
