Economist and Padma awardee Bibek Debroy, who died in November 2024, figures in Delhi’s draft electoral roll and has been flagged for “no mapping” with the previous Special Intensive Revision (SIR) roll.
Debroy, who was 69 when he passed away, is listed as a 70-year-old elector in polling part 73 of the Delhi Cantonment Assembly constituency in the draft electoral roll published on August 31, The Hindu has found. He has further been listed on the polling-part-wise list of 33.1 lakh electors against whom notices have been issued, published by the Delhi Chief Electoral Officer’s office on Friday (September 18, 2026).
These names have been flagged either for one of 11 “logical discrepancies” identified by the Election Commission of India’s software or for “no mapping” with the previous SIR roll. Notices are being generated to verify documents in cases of logical discrepancies and to establish eligibility in cases of “no mapping”.
A notice has been generated against his name because his record is unmapped to the previous SIR roll.
Debroy had served as chairman of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council since 2017 and was a member of the NITI Aayog. Following his death, political leaders across the political spectrum paid tribute to him. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said that Debroy “left an indelible mark on India’s intellectual landscape”, while President Droupadi Murmu had also condoled his death.
Several other prominent names also figure in the list. In the Jangpura constituency’s polling part 33 in Nizamuddin East, sociologist and social psychologist Ashis Nandy, 88, senior advocate Indira Jaising, 85, and senior advocate Anand Grover, 74, Political communications consultant Dilip Cherian, 68, have been flagged for notices, all marked “unmapped with Last SIR”.
Journalist Sheela Bhatt, 66, has been flagged for a “self-name mismatch”. Senior advocate Huzefa Ahmadi, 56, also in the same polling part, has been similarly flagged for no mapping. Economist Deepak Nayyar, 79, in the Kalkaji constituency, has been marked for a “parent name mismatch”.
Under the ECI’s guidelines for the SIR, the draft electoral roll was prepared on the basis of duly filled enumeration forms received and successfully verified by Booth Level Officers. The guidelines also state that members of the judiciary, public representatives, holders of declared offices and personalities from fields including arts, culture, journalism, sports and public service are to be included in the draft roll so that necessary documents can be collected during the claims and objections period.
Debroy’s name had remained on Delhi’s electoral roll through the 2025 Assembly election, despite deletions carried out during the subsequent summary revision, pre-SIR mapping exercise and during enumeration phase.
Delhi has, meanwhile, seen complaints from citizens who said their names were missing from the draft roll despite submitting enumeration forms, as well as cases of electors being wrongly marked “dead” or “shifted” in the ASDD list — for Absent, Shifted, Dead and Duplicate voters. A total of 47.56 lakh voters have been excluded from the draft roll and placed in the ASDD category.
The 33.1 lakh electors flagged for logical discrepancies or no mapping constitute over one-third of the 97.5 lakh electors in the draft roll. Verification and disposal of these cases are to be completed by October 29, with the final electoral roll scheduled to be published on November 4.
Electors in the “no mapping” category will have to establish their eligibility by submitting documents from the 12 documents prescribed by the ECI for the verification process.
A senior election official said prominent leaders and other well-known personalities would not be required to visit hearing centres. Electoral Registration Officers will prepare a list of such cases and direct Booth Level Officers to visit their registered addresses to verify the records and resolve the discrepancies, the official said.
The list also includes several prominent political and public figures. Chief Minister Rekha Gupta, former Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his family, former Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar and his wife Sudesh Dhankhar, former Supreme Court judge Justice Madan B. Lokur, former Union Minister Kapil Sibal and his wife Promila Sibal, former Union Minister Subramanian Swamy, Delhi Minister Parvesh Sahib Singh, former Delhi BJP president Virendra Kumar Sachdeva, historian Romila Thapar and New Delhi MP Bansuri Swaraj figure among those whose names have been flagged.
Congress MP Abhishek Manu Singhvi is also on the list, though the column specifying the reason for the discrepancy is blank.
Published – September 20, 2026 12:23 pm IST
