On 27th October, hundreds gathered in Trilokpuri, Delhi, as a part of a series of “Jan Sunwais” or people’s audits of wrongful SIR deletions. The meeting was joined and addressed by CPI-ML Liberation General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya, Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi, and JNUSU Joint Secretary Danish Ali from AISA among others. The audit heard testimonies by a large number of excluded voters. Rights activist Nikhil Dey and his colleagues at MKSS, along with VAM and NFIW conducted the hearing. Activists Yogendra Yadav, Prashant Bhushan, and former AISA President N Sai Balaji also interacted with several SIR victims.
The audit in four booths of Trilokpuri (booth numbers 42 and 43 of Indira Camp and booth 79 and 80 of Block 34) revealed the horrific truth of SIR. In one case, twelve voters deleted from a large family of fifteen electors, and in another, six from another family of ten. Over a period of 4 days (23-26 October 2026), some forty volunteers managed to verify 1,236 deleted voters out of a total of 2,097 cases of exclusion from a roll of 5,173 voters and found 416 instances of wrongful deletion. That is one out of every three verified excluded voters. Many of these deleted voters presented their testimonies in a public audit held at the Trilokpuri sabji mandi.
Some of the deleted voters were never contacted by any BLO and never received any enumeration form. A majority of the deleted voters had, however, duly submitted enumeration forms but were never notified about their exclusion. Several allegedly dead voters testified in the hearing. Some deleted voters also complained about the demolition of their dwellings. Contrary to the Modi government promise of universal housing (jahan jhuggi wahin makan, assured pucca house in place of huts in slums), residents have been bulldozed out of their existing huts. There were also young potential voters who complained about being denied their rightful opportunity of electoral enrolment in the entire SIR process.
Com. Dipankar addressed the gathering, “If we want to reverse this electoral fraud, there is only one thing we must do. The more they centralize the process, the more we need to decentralize it. At every polling booth, people must know whose names are being added to the electoral rolls, whose names are being removed, and why they are being removed. This is why we need public hearings at every polling booth, where voters can gather and the facts can be brought out into the open. This means that voters themselves must be included as participants in preparing and updating the electoral rolls.”
Apart from amplifying the growing demands for scrapping of the SIR and restoration of the voting right of every wrongfully deleted voter, and removal of Gyanesh Kumar and reconstitution of the ECI, the Trilokpuri public audit also demanded a credible and transparent method of finalisation of electoral roll through booth level public hearings before annual finalisation of the electoral roll. Over centralisation and over-reliance on digital technology which are at the root of the massive irregularities and inaccuracies in the SIR can be best countered by ensuring decentralised booth-level finalisation through effective voter participation of voters in the process.
Com. Danish Ali added, “This is a government that has come to power not through the mandate of the people, but by stealing their votes, depriving them of their voting rights, and excluding them from the electoral process. And this government hopes that in the years to come, it can continue winning elections through the same kinds of electoral fraud and remain in power. We must come together and show them that we, in this country, in this Hindustan, will stand in the front ranks of the struggle to defend democracy. We will not allow our right to vote to be taken away from us.”
