Congress Calls for Complete Transparency on Voter Deletions in Uttarakhand’s SIR Update

Dehradun: The recent Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Uttarakhand has ignited a fresh political controversy. The state unit of the Congress alleges that a large number of names were removed from the voter list and is urging the Election Commission to disclose the precise figures.

Congress Raises Concerns Over Voter Removals

Addressing reporters at the party’s Uttarakhand Bhawan, former legislator and chair of the Congress SIR Committee, Manoj Rawat, claimed that approximately 13.85 lakh voters disappeared from the rolls during the pre‑SIR and SIR stages. He asked why the Election Commission has not made the detailed deletion data public and demanded stage‑wise numbers to ensure transparency.

Questions About Form‑7 Deployment

Rawat also raised doubts about the use of Form‑7 in the revision process. He said that automatically generated forms, complaints supposedly filed by BJP workers, and the apparent lack of follow‑up on those complaints have cast a shadow over the procedure’s fairness.

Allegations of Coordination

The Congress leader suggested that eligible voters may have been unintentionally omitted and hinted at a possible coordination between the Election Commission and the BJP. He emphasized that these remain party allegations and have not been proven in any court.

BLOs Guarded Voter Names

Rawat commended the party’s booth‑level officers (BLOs) for their vigilance. According to him, Congress’s grassroots workers stayed active throughout the revision, flagging cases where legitimate voters were at risk of being deleted.

Worries About the Upcoming Inclusion Phase

The party also warned about the forthcoming addition round using Form‑6. Rawat insisted that both the addition and removal of names must follow a clear, verifiable, and transparent procedure.

Demand for Full Disclosure

Congress has formally asked the Election Commission to publish all SIR‑related data, including the exact count of deletions at each step. The party argues that such openness will eliminate doubts and restore confidence in the integrity of the electoral roll.

“Electoral rolls are the foundation of every citizen’s right to vote,” Rawat said. “Each stage of their preparation must be open to scrutiny.”

Present at the briefing were senior Congress leaders such as state general secretary Rajendra Bhandari, minority department president Haji Suleman Ansari, chief spokesperson Garima Mehra Dausoni, SIR committee member Amendra Bisht, and advocate Sandeep Chamoli.