Former Chief Election Commissioner S.Y. Quraishi has criticised the Election Commission of India (ECI) over the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, questioning how many illegal immigrants have actually been identified through the exercise.
Speaking to ANI on Sunday, Quraishi sarcastically said the Election Commission had “eliminated” around 14–15 crore people through the exercise, while questioning the absence of publicly disclosed figures on illegal immigrants identified during the revision. His remarks were directed at the scale of voter exclusions and should not be interpreted as an official finding that 14–15 crore people have been removed from India's population.
Quraishi questions SIR objective
Quraishi said the ECI should disclose how many illegal immigrants had been detected, particularly because identifying ineligible voters has been cited as one of the reasons for conducting the revision.
He questioned why the Commission had not publicly released such figures and said doing so would allow the public to assess the effectiveness of the exercise.
The former CEC also used the figure of 14–15 crore, equivalent to roughly 15 per cent of India's population, to criticise the extent of voter exclusions. His statement was framed as a sarcastic attack on the electoral-roll exercise rather than a claim that the country's population had actually declined by that amount.
Former CEC calls voter deletions a concern
Quraishi has previously criticised the SIR process, arguing that the deletion of large numbers of voters could affect the democratic process.
He said voting is a constitutional right and referred to Article 326 of the Constitution, which provides for elections to the Lok Sabha and state legislative assemblies based on adult suffrage, subject to constitutional and legal provisions.
According to Quraishi, the process of removing names from electoral rolls should therefore be handled with particular care so that eligible citizens are not left out.
What is the Election Commission’s stated purpose?
The ECI has said that SIR is intended to make electoral rolls more accurate and up to date by identifying issues such as duplicate registrations, deceased voters, migrated voters and names of foreign nationals who may have been included in voter lists.
The Commission has also maintained that the exercise is intended to ensure that no eligible elector is left out while removing ineligible or duplicate entries.
The nationwide SIR exercise was announced in October 2025 by Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and has subsequently been implemented in several states and Union territories.
Maharashtra voter list fuels controversy
The debate has intensified following developments in Maharashtra, where the draft electoral roll released after the SIR enumeration phase showed a substantial reduction compared with the earlier voter list.
According to figures cited in current reports, Maharashtra had 9,78,54,049 electors, while 7,71,65,562 had submitted their enumeration forms as of August 17.
The difference has become a major political issue, with opposition leaders questioning whether eligible voters could be excluded during the revision process.
Congress leader Pawan Khera has separately accused the BJP of benefiting from the alleged removal of voters in Maharashtra. These are political allegations and do not establish that the excluded names were unlawfully removed.
Opposition and ECI face-off over SIR
SIR has emerged as a contentious issue between the Election Commission, opposition parties and political groups in states preparing for elections.
Opposition leaders have raised concerns about transparency, documentation requirements and the possibility of eligible voters being left out. The ECI, meanwhile, has maintained that electoral-roll revision is necessary to ensure that voter lists remain accurate and free of ineligible entries.
Why Quraishi’s remarks matter
Quraishi's intervention adds to the debate because he previously headed the Election Commission and is speaking from the perspective of a former constitutional election official.
His central question is not simply how many names have been excluded, but whether the ECI can demonstrate how many of those exclusions relate to the stated objective of identifying ineligible voters, including foreign nationals.
The controversy is therefore likely to remain focused on two competing priorities: maintaining clean and accurate electoral rolls while ensuring that every eligible Indian citizen retains the ability to vote.
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