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Madhya Pradesh: 1.36 lakh voter deletions but no digital records

An RTI filing revealed the crucial lapse; the applicant received a response stating that no digital records were preserved.

New Delhi: More than 1.36 lakh voter deletions recorded across Madhya Pradesh’s Indore district in 2022 have come under scrutiny after constituency election offices told an RTI applicant that digital records explaining the deletions had not been preserved.

The deletions, recorded between January 5 and October 15, 2022, predate the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. But the responses to former Indore councillor Dilip Kaushal’s RTI application have raised fresh questions over how changes made through the Garud app and ERO Net were documented.

Kaushal had sought details of entries and decisions made by Electoral Registration Officers, along with contracts, work orders, backups and related correspondence. The district election office forwarded his application to constituency offices, which responded in June that the requested digital material was unavailable.

Several offices gave similar explanations. Indore-1 and Indore-3 said such records, including videos, DVDs, pen drives, WhatsApp and email material, were not maintained because there had been no Election Commission instruction requiring their preservation. Indore-4 said the deletions were routine work carried out under the Election Commission's directions, but the related digital records were not retained.

The figures cited in Kaushal’s application show the scale of the involvement. Indore-4 accounted for 28,391 deletions and Indore-5 for 28,091, while Rau recorded 21,346. Together, the three constituencies accounted for 77,828 deletions, nearly 57% of the district total of 1,36,552.

The dispute has now reached the Madhya Pradesh High Court. Justice Sandeep N Bhatt directed the State Information Commission to decide Kaushal’s pending second appeal, preferably within 45 days of receiving the certified order.

Kaushal had also complained to the Chief Election Commissioner and other election authorities in July 2025, raising concerns over the deletion of records across all 230 Assembly constituencies.

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