SIR in Maharashtra may have deleted 3 crore voters, claims MLA Rohit Pawar

Maharashtra MLA Rohit Pawar on Sunday (September 27, 2026) claimed the number of voters deleted in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Maharashtra could rise from the current 2.07 crore to nearly 3 crore, alleging irregularities in the verification process.

Targeting Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, Mr. Pawar at a press conference in Mumbai alleged that electoral powers once exercised at the constituency level had been centralised with the Election Commission, allowing voter names to be added or deleted from Delhi.

Booth-level officers (BLOs) in some places conducted “table surveys” instead of physical verification of voters, and information was being supplied by BJP workers, Mr. Pawar charged.

Such instances had come to light in Pune, Nashik and Thane, he claimed and questioned the lack of action despite complaints being made to election officials.

“Out of the 1.22 crore under scrutiny, some people will definitely be disqualified, and the figure of 2.07 crore deleted voters could increase further and may even reach 3 crore,” Mr. Pawar said.

According to official data released during the SIR exercise, Maharashtra has 9.78 crore registered voters, while enumeration forms relating to 2.07 crore voters remained uncollected during the process. Officials attributed such cases to voters being deceased, untraceable, permanently shifted or having duplicate entries, the leader from the Opposition party said.

The large number of excluded or unverified voters raised concern. Even a large number of the 1.22 crore voters whose records are under scrutiny could eventually be left out of the electoral rolls, he claimed.

The legislator also alleged that errors continued in voter records even after the SIR process, citing instances where living persons were shown as deceased and where photographs and gender details did not correspond with the voter records.

The verification process had been centralised and decisions regarding voter records were being taken through a system based in Delhi, he claimed.

Mr. Pawar said he had submitted evidence and suggestions to Maharashtra Chief Electoral Officer S. Chockalingam to establish whether physical verification had actually been carried out in the case of some voter names in his Karjat-Jamkhed constituency.

The ongoing SIR exercise, along with delimitation, could pose a threat to the Constitution and democracy, he claimed and appealed to Opposition parties, social organisations, and citizens to come together to protect voting rights and reservations.

“”What is happening is extremely dangerous for the Constitution and democracy. If delimitation and SIR are brought together, the BJP may feel that it can somehow win in 2029. Whether people exist or not would not matter. I feel we are moving towards Russia,” he said.

He also alleged that 40-50 lakh voters were added in Maharashtra between the Lok Sabha and assembly elections through Form 6, and claimed that a similar exercise could be repeated.

Mr. Pawar further said that the Cockroach Janta Party’s (CJP) protest should not be limited to seeking the resignation of CEC Gyanesh Kumar, but should also demand removal of EVMs and greater transparency and technological safeguards in the electoral process.

“If the agitation is against Gyanesh Kumar, for removing EVMs and for replacing the present process with a transparent one, then as a citizen I see no problem in giving support to such an agitation,” he added.