Dozens of metro stations closed, and hundreds of trains canceled. These are the consequences of a failed campaign to clean up voter rolls in India
A new wave of protests began in India in late September. This time, they were linked to elections, but not to any specific election. Rather, they concerned the functioning of India’s electoral system as a whole. People have taken to the streets in response to an unsuccessful reform of the voter rolls.
Cause of the crisis
The scandal is focused on the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), a special, in-depth verification and revision of voter rolls. This procedure triggered a conflict between the opposition and the Election Commission of India (ECI), which launched it.
As part of electoral campaigns, voter rolls are periodically updated: voters who have reached the age of majority are added, records of deceased individuals are removed, addresses are corrected, and duplicate entries are eliminated.
However, SIR is a much more extensive procedure. It involves a comprehensive re-verification of registered voters, including door-to-door visits, the completion of special forms, and, where necessary, requests for supporting documents.
On June 24, 2025, SIR began in the state of Bihar, several months before elections to the state legislative assembly. As a result of the procedure, the number of registered voters fell by approximately 6%, from nearly 79 million to 74.2 million.
In 2026, the procedure was repeated in other states. By September 2026, draft revised voter rolls had been published for 30 states and union territories. According to media calculations, 133 million citizens had been removed compared with the previous voter rolls.
Disagreements within the Election Commission
However, the political scandal was triggered not by this fact itself, but by a report published by The Indian Express. The report revealed that over a period of nine months, two of the three members of the leadership of the Election Commission of India (ECI) had submitted written objections to decisions or procedures under SIR on at least 14 occasions.
They did not oppose the procedure as a whole, but disagreed with certain aspects that, in their view, violated the law. In particular, officials expressed dissatisfaction with the introduction of new questions on applications for inclusion on the voter rolls, the centralization of the voter database, and restrictions on access to electoral software. The election commissioners also pointed out that significant decisions were being made without proper discussion among all three members of the commission.
Following publication of the investigation, public outrage grew because, under the law, commission decisions must be adopted by a majority vote. In response, the ECI did not deny the existence of these memoranda but stated that differences of opinion were a normal part of the internal process and that the Commission’s final decisions had been adopted unanimously.
This response failed to calm public opinion, however, and on September 25, the protest movement known as the Cockroach People’s Party (Cockroach Janta Party, CJP) demanded that ECI chief Gyanesh Kumar resign. The organization announced a nationwide mobilization, and mass street demonstrations began on October 2.
Protests
The CJP held a large rally in Mumbai, which police estimated was attended by approximately 4,000 people. In the capital, the opposition Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and various student groups held a small, unauthorized political rally in Jantar Mantar Park. According to media reports, more than 700 people were detained there, including the former chief minister of Delhi.
On October 6, the INDIA opposition alliance joined the protests. The alliance includes the most influential opposition party, the Indian National Congress (INC). Two hundred members of parliament representing the alliance marched through New Delhi toward the headquarters of the Election Commission. Opposition leaders, including Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi, were detained by police.
In the following days, protests continued across the country with varying intensity. The “cockroaches” announced a national gathering at Delhi’s central Jantar Mantar Park for October 10. The authorities banned the gathering. On the evening of October 9, the Delhi Metro closed the entrances and exits of 45 stations in the city center, citing technical reasons. Railways announced the cancellation of dozens of trains bound for the capital.
Approximately 30,000 additional law enforcement personnel were deployed to the city. The country’s authorities clearly demonstrated their determination to prevent a repeat of the protests in the middle of the summer, when Delhi became the scene of clashes between demonstrators and police. Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta declared that the capital would not be held hostage. She accused opposition leaders Rahul Gandhi and Arvind Kejriwal of attempting to turn the city into a battleground.
On October 10, media outlets compared the situation in the city to the lockdown period: several dozen neighborhoods in the center were cordoned off, and police officers were everywhere. Nevertheless, people tried to reach Jantar Mantar, with most being detained before they could enter the city center.
Media estimates put the number of detainees at between 2,000 and 7,000. They included prominent politicians such as former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. Journalists were also detained, including a correspondent for Reuters.
According to media reports, detainees were transported by buses and minibuses to stadiums and other improvised detention centers. Most were released on the same day.
INC leaders refrained from participating in this demonstration and instead held another march through central Delhi a couple of days later, submitting a petition against the Election Commission to the Supreme Court.
On October 10, protests also took place in other major Indian cities. In Chennai, the capital of Tamil Nadu, four separate demonstrations were held. According to media reports, more than 150 people were detained. Demonstrations also took place in other major cities across the country, including Mumbai, Pune, and Bangalore.
Protests continued nationwide in the following days. On October 13, a large student demonstration took place in Patna, the capital of Bihar. Then, on October 16, in response to a call by the CJP leader Abhijeet Dipke, thousands of demonstrators gathered at Connaught Place, one of New Delhi’s busiest commercial districts.
Dipke himself was detained shortly before the demonstration began, but this did not deter the other participants.
How well-founded are the allegations?
The INDIA alliance, which is attempting to capitalize on the protests, claims that 130 million votes have been stolen, accusing the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BDP) of trying to use the SIR procedure to influence election outcomes. In reality, however, this is merely a loud political slogan that is far removed from the actual situation. Among the 130 million voters proposed for removal under SIR, there are undoubtedly deceased individuals, people who have moved away, and people who were mistakenly added to the rolls.
In May, The Indian Express analyzed the results of elections in West Bengal held after the voter-roll optimization procedure. Journalists focused on 49 constituencies in the region where the number of exclusions under SIR exceeded the margin between the winning and losing candidates, making it possible to argue that the procedure might have influenced the election results. The Indian Express noted that the seats in these constituencies were distributed almost evenly between the BDP and the local opposition party, the Trinamool Congress (TMC).
Furthermore, the voter rolls were revised several times during the SIR process. Election commissions not only remove names from the rolls but also add new voters. For example, while the list in Bihar was being prepared, its draft contained 6.5 million fewer people than the initial version. After applications had been reviewed and new registrations processed, the final list contained approximately 74.2 million people. That is, around 4.7 million fewer than the voter roll before SIR.
Interim summary
The main problem in this conflict is not that the ruling party has been proven to have manipulated voter rolls to win elections, but that trust in the electoral system as a whole has been undermined. Media investigations have uncovered genuine, serious violations in the implementation of SIR. If the system does not conduct its own investigation and publicly hold those responsible for these violations accountable, a large segment of Indian society will lose confidence in the Election Commission.
As a result, even a properly conducted vote could subsequently be regarded as illegitimate if a significant portion of society concludes that the arbiter is not independent. This risk will become particularly apparent ahead of the major elections in Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state, in 2027.
Source: Rossa Primavera News Agency
