7 Lakh Muslims, among Delhi Voters Face Risk of Being Dropped

700,000 Muslims and Low-Income Residents Among Those at Risk

More than 4.7 million Delhi voters risk being excluded from the draft electoral roll due to be published on August 24 as part of the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR). The final roll is scheduled for October 27.

The deadline for submitting enumeration forms ended Monday. Those whose forms were not submitted will be able to file claims and objections after the draft roll is published.

According to the Delhi Chief Electoral Officer’s office, data for 9.747 million of the capital’s 14.5 million registered voters, about 67% had been collected and uploaded by Monday. The remaining 4.762 million, or nearly 33%, will be classified as “uncollectable”, including voters who were absent, had moved, died, had duplicate entries or fell under “other” categories.

South-East Delhi Most at Risk

South-East Delhi has the lowest digitisation rate, at 56.32%, and is expected to see the largest number of deletions. The district includes Okhla, Sangam Vihar, Badarpur, Jangpura, Tughlakabad and Kalkaji, areas with large Muslim populations and many low-income migrant communities. Of its 1.505 million registered voters, around 700,000 are estimated to be at risk of exclusion.

Booth-level officers said many migrant workers completed the SIR process in their home states, including Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Residents, however, said many workers failed to complete the process because they lacked assistance with the forms.

Okhla AAP MLA Amanatullah Khan recently alleged that 100,000–150,000 voters could be removed from his constituency and called on the Election Commission to restore any wrongly excluded names.

In Tughlakabad, only 100,323 of 192,419 registered voters had their forms digitised, a rate of 52.14%, putting nearly half the electorate at risk.

Seven constituencies with significant Muslim populations recorded an average digitisation rate of 68.6%, slightly above Delhi’s overall rate.

Other Districts

New Delhi district recorded a digitisation rate of 60.76%, putting around 60,000 voters at risk of exclusion. South Delhi and Central Delhi recorded rates of 61.32% and 61.96%, respectively.

Outer North Delhi had the highest rate at 75.68%, followed by South-West Delhi at 73.16%. North-East Delhi, the capital’s largest electoral district with 1.807 million voters, recorded 70.94%.