SIR in Delhi: At Jan Sunwai in Trilokpuri, families scramble to get back on electoral roll

In Delhi's Trilokpuri neighborhood, families were scrambling to regain their names on the electoral roll after a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the rolls revealed that some names had been improperly deleted. Suresh Kumar Patel, a 29-year-old JCB driver, learned that his name had been removed from the draft electoral roll despite having filled out his enumeration form in front of a booth level officer (BLO).

His father's name remained on the list. Suresh joined hundreds of others at a 'Jan Sunwai' - a public hearing organized by various civil society groups - to seek answers about the wrongful deletions. The hearing, which followed a four-day public audit, identified 416 people out of 1,236 verified voters who had been wrongly placed on the list of absent, shifted, dead or duplicate entries.

Rahul Gandhi, Leader of Opposition, addressed the gathering, emphasizing that crores of people are being deprived of their right to vote. Sunita, a 52-year-old woman, explained how her family had been marked as "shifted" and removed from the roll after they sold their house and moved to a rented apartment. She expressed frustration over repeated attempts to register as a new elector, with her BLO consistently making excuses.

Urmila Devi, another attendee, highlighted the importance of a valid Voter ID beyond the electoral process, as her family feared losing government benefits if they were removed from the roll.