Jaipur: A gap of nearly 30 lakh names between the Election Commission of India’s final SIR electoral roll and the voter lists being used by the Rajasthan State Election Commission for local body polls has triggered questions over the validity of the rolls and renewed demands for a public audit.Social activist and MKSS founder Nikhil Dey said Monday SEC and the office of Chief Electoral Officer must explain why Rajasthan is using pre-SIR voter list for municipal and the impending panchayat elections when ECI had revised the rolls through Special Intensive Revision.“The public deserves clarity on which one is legitimate, especially since there is a difference of at least 30 lakh names between the two,” Dey said.Appearing under the banner of People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), activists also demanded the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, alleging that deletions under SIR require public scrutiny.
Social activist Nikhil Dey at Vinoba Gyan Mandir in Jaipur, Rajasthan on 05 October 2026
Citing a comparative study between pre and post SIR voter lists, Dey said 26.63 lakh voters deleted during SIR continue to appear in SEC’s 2026 urban and panchayat voter lists. The lists were matched using EPIC numbers.Dey said 44.28 lakh names were deleted during SIR and 12.91 lakh were added, reducing ECI’s electorate from 5.47 crore to 5.15 crore. In contrast, SEC lists for the same 199 Assembly constituencies contain around 5.45 crore voters.Of the 26.63 lakh overlapping names, 17.57 lakh had been marked “permanently shifted”, 3.68 lakh “absent/untraceable” and 1.86 lakh as duplicate entries. Another 3.52 lakh names were deleted citing deaths, including 42,293 people below 40 years of age, which activists said required investigation.Demanding a booth-level social audit before further additions, deletions or corrections, Dey said BLOs should read out and verify every name publicly, and the audit trail for every change should be disclosed.Voter roll gap-Approximate gap between ECI’s final SIR roll and SEC’s poll lists: 30 lakh-Voters deleted in SIR but still present in SEC’s 2026 local body lists: 26.63 lakh-58% of 26.63 lakh voters women-Names deleted during SIR: 44.28 lakh-Names added during SIR: 12.91 lakh-ECI electorate after SIR revision: 5.47 crore to 5.15 crore-People below 40 listed among names deleted citing death by citizen groups and local representatives: 42,293
