India's Election Commission Removes 130 Million Voters Amid Protests

The Election Commission of India has removed over 130 million names from the national voter roll as part of a Special Intensive Revision exercise. While the commission describes the move as a cleanup of duplicates and discrepancies, critics and former officials allege the use of algorithms and burdensome documentation to target Muslims and political opponents. Evidence from Karnataka indicates an orchestrated campaign where third-party forms were used to dispute the existence of predominantly Muslim voters.

On October 6, 2026, opposition leaders from the INDIA bloc, led by the Congress party, marched from Parliament House to the commission's headquarters in New Delhi. Protesters demanded the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, claiming the deletions were designed to benefit Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party. The BJP dismissed the demonstrations as a sponsored attempt to create anarchy.

Former Election Commissioner Ashok Lavasa criticized the shift toward an exclusive approach to voter rolls, while BJP spokesman Pratyush Kanth defended the cleanup as a response to previous party demands for the removal of bogus entries. The controversy follows a victory for the BJP in West Bengal, where nine million voters were removed prior to the election. On October 5, the Supreme Court of India agreed to hear legal arguments regarding the poll body's conduct.