Rahul Gandhi alleges EC removed 727 of 728 voters from Delhi’s Bela Estate after SIR

Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Monday accused the Election Commission of disenfranchising residents of Delhi’s Bela Estate during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, alleging that nearly all voters from a polling part covering the settlement had disappeared from the draft roll.

Gandhi said 728 people lived in the settlement on the Yamuna floodplain and claimed that after the SIR only one remained on the electoral roll, with 727 names removed. Separate reporting on the electoral records has put the earlier number of registered voters at the polling part at 729, of whom 728 were excluded from the draft roll, leaving one voter — a discrepancy with the figures cited by Gandhi.

Rahul visits residents

Gandhi shared a video of his visit to Bela Estate, where he interacted with residents and spoke over the phone with a Sub-Divisional Magistrate about the exclusions. He said residents had lived in the area for decades and had voted in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and the 2025 Delhi Assembly elections.

The Congress leader said that although houses in the area had been demolished earlier, several residents continued to live there. He argued that the absence of a permanent house should not, by itself, deprive an eligible citizen of the right to be registered as a voter.

During his conversation with the official, Gandhi referred to provisions used to enrol homeless voters and questioned why the Bela Estate residents could not similarly remain on the rolls. He described the exclusions as “vote theft”, an allegation made by him and not established by the available electoral records.

Poll authorities explain exclusions

Delhi election authorities have previously offered a different explanation for the large-scale exclusions at Bela Estate. According to their account, many addresses in the earlier electoral records were linked to agricultural land, while residential structures at those recorded addresses were subsequently demolished.

During the SIR, Booth Level Officers visiting the addresses recorded in the existing electoral roll found that many electors were no longer residing at those specific locations. The affected names were consequently placed in the Absent, Shifted, Dead and Duplicate, or ASDD, category rather than included in the August 31 draft roll.

Available data for the polling part showed that 728 of 729 registered voters were excluded from the draft roll, with 632 categorised as “permanently shifted” and 42 recorded as dead. The exclusion from the draft roll does not, however, necessarily amount to a final loss of voting rights, as eligible residents can seek inclusion during the claims and objections process.

Residents can seek inclusion

The Delhi Chief Electoral Officer has said any eligible elector whose name is absent from the draft roll can apply for inclusion through Form 6 during the claims and objections period, which runs until September 30. Election officials have also been conducting verification exercises and special camps to process applications and resolve issues arising from the SIR.

Residents of Bela Estate have been submitting applications seeking restoration of their names, and election officials have visited the settlement for address verification. The final electoral roll is scheduled to be published after the completion of the claims, objections and verification process.

Gandhi targets CEC

Gandhi also targeted Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over the episode, arguing that people with few economic resources were being deprived of their principal democratic power. His remarks came amid a broader confrontation between the Congress and the Election Commission over the SIR exercise and the handling of electoral rolls.

The Election Commission has rejected wider allegations questioning the integrity of the revision process and has maintained that prescribed procedures allow eligible voters missing from draft rolls to seek inclusion. The Bela Estate case has nevertheless drawn attention because of the exceptionally high proportion of voters excluded from the draft list at a single polling part.