The Indian government has removed about 130 million names from electoral rolls as part of a nationwide revision of voter lists, triggering accusations from opposition figures that the exercise is being used for political purposes.
The scale of the removals has drawn particular attention in states where large numbers of voters have been dropped from the rolls. In one region, roughly a third of registered voters were removed, while reports have raised questions about whether some people were wrongly excluded.
Indian journalist Krishn Kaushik, writing in the Financial Times, reported that millions of voters appeared to have been wrongly purged and that some people trying to establish their identities had struggled to have their names restored.
The revisions have become politically contentious amid growing tensions between Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and opposition parties.
Opposition figures have accused the government and election authorities of using the exercise to influence the electorate, pointing to the removal of 2.7 million voters in West Bengal before the BJP secured its first victory in the state.
The Election Commission has defended the revision as an effort to clean up electoral rolls and remove ineligible or duplicate entries. But critics say the process risks disenfranchising legitimate voters if people are removed without adequate safeguards or an effective mechanism to restore their names.
The controversy comes as India’s political system faces broader questions about democratic institutions and the country’s direction under Modi.
The dispute over the electoral rolls is therefore not simply about the number of names removed. It has become a test of whether India’s system can update its voter registers without excluding legitimate voters or undermining confidence in elections.
