Raghav Chadha out of Punjab draft roll: How does SIR delete a name, and how can it be restored?

On September 1, 2026, Maharashtra's Chief Electoral Officer released the state's draft electoral roll, revealing that a staggering 2,06,88,487 names were deleted during a state-wide Special Intensive Revision (SIR) carried out in recent months. Starting from an electoral roll of 9,78,54,049, only 7,71,65,562 names (79.86%) were retained, while the remaining 21.14% were deleted due to various reasons.

Thane, Mumbai City, Mumbai Suburban, Pune, Nagpur, and Palghar districts experienced the highest percentage of deletions. Among these, Thane led with 38.18% deletions, with a majority (23.4%) of the deleted names (around 17 lakh) falling under the 'Untraceable/Absent' category. Pune followed closely with nearly 17.8 lakh (19.9%) deletions due to voters being 'untraceable/absent'. The deletion categories included permanent shift, untraceability/absence, and the voter being dead.