'I don't want to be called a new Indian voter when I am an old Indian voter.'
The Election Commission of India updates voter lists from time to time to remove errors, duplicate entries, and names of deceased voters.
For this purpose, it is currently carrying out a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
As part of this exercise, booth level officers (BLOs) visit homes to verify voter details, and a draft voter list is published.
On January 6, when the draft list for Uttar Pradesh was released, many voters discovered that their names were missing from the draft electoral list.
One of them was Gurdeep Singh Sappal, a permanent invitee to the Congress Working Committee and aide of Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, whose name has been on the voter list since 2003.
Normally, the Election Commission uses different forms for different purposes.
Form 6 is used to add a voter's name to the electoral roll, usually for first-time voters.
Form 8 has traditionally been used by existing voters to correct details such as name or address. Earlier, if a voter shifted houses, filling Form 8 was enough to update the address without deleting the voter's old record.
According to Mr. Sappal, the problem with the current SIR exercise is that it does not account for voters who have changed their residence recently. Even though shifting homes is common, SIR treats such voters as new voters.
In his case, his name was deleted from the Sahibabad constituency after he moved to Noida, but it was not added to the Noida voter list.
Election officials reportedly told him that SIR has no provision to include voters who have shifted to a new address.
Instead of allowing him to update his address through Form 8, he was asked to apply again using Form 6, which would mean being treated as a new voter and losing his earlier voter record.
He argues that this approach has led to the exclusion of crores of genuine voters from the draft list and has made a simple address change unnecessarily complicated.
Mr. Sappal posted his experience on the microblogging site X, to which the chief election office of UP responded: 'The BLO has performed his duty correctly by removing your name from the voter list of Ghaziabad district. You and your family members should fill out Form 6 to get your names added to the voter list of Noida district. Just as you can fill out Form 6, other people in a situation similar to yours can also fill out Form 6, and they should do so.'
In this interview with Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.com, Mr. Sappal explains how his name was excluded from the SIR list, why he believes the process is flawed, and what it could mean for millions of voters across the country.
The first question that comes to one's mind is, how can your name be deleted when it was present in the 2003 voter list?
I checked the draft electoral list of Uttar Pradesh after it was released and I found out my name was missing.
Did you check the details on your own?
Yes, as a voter one needs to go and check the draft list and find out whether his or her name exists on it or not. It was released on January 6.
You were a voter in Sahibabad constituency in 2003 but later you moved to Noida. So, which home did the BLOs (booth level officers) visit for the SIR exercise?
They came to both houses, Sahibabad as well as my Noida home. I requested them to delete my name from the Sahibabad voter list and include it in Noida which is my present address.
To my surprise they told me that if I have shifted to a new house then they do not have any provision to add my name to a new address.
I told them the rule says that the place where I stay as a voter has to be included. They then told me that they do not have any such provision in SIR. Shifted voters cannot be added in the SIR exercise.
Later, I found that what they were saying was true and therefore I took to social media and raised this issue, which is of grave concern.
Around 4.64 crore (46.4 million) voters have shifted homes after their names were enrolled in previous electoral rolls. And their names are not included in the SIR list. Mostly these are genuine voters.
The ECI has just cut their names out from the draft SIR list. There is no provision for them to be included in this list.
Did you tell the BLOs that you have two addresses and currently stay in Noida?
Yes, I told them that I have shifted my home. I then downloaded the form, filled it and submitted it to them.
Is it possible that if you had not told them that earlier you were a voter in Sahibabad they would have simply added you in the list and not excluded your name?
SIR has an enumeration form. It comes with a QR code. The BLO goes to every home and distributes it.
But when you shift your home then your QR code is not generated. So, you cannot blame the BLO or even the election returning officer (ERO). This is a mistake of the Election Commission of India.
The ECI did not think and implement SIR properly. They never thought how to include voters who have shifted their homes after previous elections. And people do change homes, jobs, or move out of cities.
There are 10 to 11 percent voters who have shifted homes and the ECI has not done anything to include them as old voters. It simply deletes their names from the draft voter list. Now it wants them to register as new voters. In this there are serious issues.
Problems like?
In SIR there is one major thing called voter mapping. If your name exists in the 2003 voters list then ECI automatically considers you an Indian citizen. And if your name is not included in the 2003 voters list then your Indian citizenship will be investigated.
This is not me, but the ECI which stated so in its affidavit in the Supreme Court of India.
Now the trouble is that the ECI is telling voters like me that since I am a shifted voter I will be counted as a new voter from 2026. I will be registered as a new voter in future but then my old voter identity of 2003 will be deleted forever because I changed my address.
Does it mean that your Indian citizenship is under question over SIR?
Precisely. If the ECI wants, and there is no guarantee once the ECI deletes your old voter ID of 2003 other agencies will not jump in to hound you in future.
The Modi government has not given any guarantee that once the ECI does not include you as a 2003 voter other government agencies will not go after you.
And this question is not about me alone, but more than 4.64 crore voters.
My own estimate says that there will be 10 crore to 12 crore (100 million to 120 million) voters who will be affected.
When the ECI asks for details of my 2003 voting records, then they have no right to delete that voting record just because I moved to a new address.
In UP 2.17 crore (21.7 million) voters got deleted. Did you come across anyone among them?
Many of the voters were dejected not to find their names in the SIR list.
But the tragedy is that not many people know how to go about it if your name is missing from the electoral list.
Secondly, to expect an ordinary voter to understand the implications of his or her name missing in the SIR list is huge.
Now, the ECI said that 1.04 crore (10.4 million) voters are being sent notices because their voter mapping could not be done. In other words, their old record of 2023 could not match with the new SIR list.
These are technical terms for a layman to understand. Therefore, the question I am asking is why isn't the ECI continuing with the old practice of allowing Form 8 for shifted voter? Why is it creating such confusion and as a result, has already deleted names of 4.64 crore voters?
What was that old practice?
Earlier if a voter changed his address he had to fill Form 8. The BLO used to come to his house to verify the form and he used to become a voter without any hassle. This was a simple system.
Now they have changed this system by telling voters that you go through a new process and become a new voter.
The old system was running smoothly.
Maybe the ECI did not want duplicate voters. In your case if you had filled Form 8 in Noida then you would also be considered as a voter in Sahibabad, isn't it?
That is the precise reason SIR is being done, to check duplicate voters.
If I fill my Form 8, then I have to mandatorily quote my EPIC number. From my EPIC number the ECI will come to know in a minute that I am an existing voter from a new area and the old one will can easily be verified digitally and deleted, even if the voter fails to do so.
Now the question is why the ECI wants you to become a new voter.
What is your analysis?
I think they have left out a huge number of voters and therefore they are trying to now wriggle out by asking shifted voters to register as new voters.
They are also looking to collect data of migrated people to deal with them separately.
This could be a BJP plan to fill in migrated voters' space with fake voters, but at this stage it's just a conjecture. I do not know the truth today. But right now, I can say it is the ECI's bureaucratic incompetence. They will eventually leave out 10 to 12 crore voters who will not be able to vote.
What is wrong if you fill Form 6 as a new address? You have been given one month to correct it.
Why should I fill it? What right does the ECI have to delete my voting record being mapped in SIR?
On one hand they are asking voters to produce old record and on the other hand they are forcing the shifted voters to give up their old records and register as new voters! Is it fair?
I don't want to delete my record of 2003 from the ECI, and why should the ECI do it? I don't want them to delete my old record.
Is the new SIR exercise an excuse to launch the National Register of Citizens as your old record of Indian citizenship is not available to the ECI because they have deleted your name after you have changed your address?
I have a simple thing to say. They have something called voter mapping. And if they delete my old records then there is no guarantee that in future this record will not be asked for, for the purpose of citizenship verification or any other issue.
The record of the Modi government is unreliable in this regard. The ECI has already asserted in the Supreme Court that they have right to examine the citizenship of the voters and are linking SIR to it. In such a case, old records assume criticality.
Also, there will be cases where ECI deletes the name of a voter just because he or she has shifted residence and that voter fails to register as new voter due to lack of adequate information. Then the citizenship of that voter will be placed under doubtful category.
The ECI has claimed in Supreme Court that it doesn't intend to cancel anyone's citizenship. But certainly, the ECI is no position to guarantee that no other government agency will never step in later and start its own investigation into the citizenship issue of deleted voters.
Also, given the way Modi government thinks and functions, it is not a remote possibility.
So will you fill Form 6 and include your name in the updated SIR list so that you can vote?
No, I am not going to fill Form 6. I am going to court. I want to fill Form 8 which was permissible so far by the ECI itself.
I don't want to be called a new Indian voter when I am an old Indian voter.
For buying a new home and changing your address you must have paid stamp duty, changed your Aadhar card at a later date. Did you face any problems then?
Everything was done smoothly. You change your driving licence to the new address, it is done easily. Your passport is changed to the new address easily. The same is the case with Aadhar too.
So, why have difficulties in changing the address for voter ID card? This makes no sense.
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