Congress Member of Parliament Shashi Tharoor has strongly advocated for the Election Commission's Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls to be either “rethought or abandoned.” Tharoor argues that the current exercise poses a significant risk of disenfranchising legitimate voters due to widespread technical and administrative errors.
Concerns Over Voter Deletions and Database Flaws
In an opinion piece, Tharoor highlighted the alarming scale of potential voter deletions. He pointed to figures from Delhi, where over 80 lakh out of 1.45 crore registered voters were either marked for deletion or issued notices to prove eligibility. Such a drastic reduction, he contends, is inconsistent with a growing adult population.
A central part of his critique focuses on the numerous errors within the revision process. Tharoor cited an example from West Bengal, where 27 lakh voters were flagged for tribunal review due to “logical discrepancies.” Of the 82,000 cases adjudicated, a staggering 91% were found to have been wrongly deleted and subsequently reinstated.
Tharoor emphasized that many discrepancies might originate within the Election Commission’s own databases, rather than from voter errors. He provided instances of incorrect coding for a parent’s age and misspelled names. Additionally, he noted cases where legitimate voters were reportedly removed despite being found eligible after review.
Questioning Technology and Authority Delegation
The reliability of the technological systems employed for the SIR exercise also came under Tharoor’s scrutiny. He questioned the decision to use the 2002 electoral roll as a baseline for voter mapping. Furthermore, he raised concerns about Booth Level Officers (BLOs), predominantly government school teachers, being tasked with verifying citizenship credentials.
“While ministers, judges, and high-ranking officials possess the institutional access and resources to rectify technical glitches seamlessly, the average citizen is plunged into administrative chaos. Furthermore, many of these “discrepancies” originate not from citizen error, but from flawed internal ECI databases,” Tharoor wrote.
He expressed alarm over the delegation of quasi-judicial powers to BLOs, arguing that granting them and unreliable software the authority to decide voter eligibility risks transforming routine documentation checks into “arbitrary purges.”
Timing and Insufficient Appeal Period
Another critical concern raised by Tharoor is the timing of the SIR, which is being conducted shortly before elections in states like Bihar, West Bengal, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu. He argues that this leaves insufficient time for voters to correct errors or appeal against wrongful deletions.
“The ECI has yet to provide a convincing rationale for forcing millions of voters into an administrative straitjacket under tight statutory deadlines just weeks before they are due to exercise their franchise, without enough time to appeal and rectify an injustice. Disenfranchising genuine citizens in haste is worse than allowing 10 times as many dead voters to remain on the rolls,” Tharoor stated.
While acknowledging the legitimate objective of cleaning electoral rolls, Tharoor’s primary objection is to a process that could lead to genuine citizens losing their franchise due to faulty databases, software problems, or rushed verification procedures.