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Nearly 30% excluded in Muslim-heavy Maharashtra seats, Delhi deletions exceed winning margins

From Muslim-heavy constituencies in Maharashtra to Delhi’s shrinking electoral rolls, SIR has cast a long shadow over the electorate, with nearly three in ten voters excluded across 38 Maharashtra seats, while Delhi’s exclusions exceed the winning margins in 68 constituencies.

As elsewhere, where the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) has been undertaken, Maharashtra too witnessed the removal of voters en masse, with nearly 30 per cent of electors in 38 Assembly constituencies where Muslims account for more than one-fifth of the population not carried forward to the draft rolls.

In Delhi, meanwhile, some 11 lakh voters were removed from the electoral rolls before the SIR formally commenced, while the subsequent scale of exclusions exceeded the winning margins in the 2025 Assembly elections in 68 of the capital’s 70 constituencies.

Across the 38 identified constituencies with a considerable Muslim population in Maharashtra, an analysis of the draft electoral rolls reveals that 37.51 lakh voters, or 29.77 per cent of the electorate, have been marked as “uncollectable”, against a statewide exclusion rate of 21.14 per cent, according to The Indian Express.

This erosion of the electorate can be seen at its peak in densely inhabited areas of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, where Bhiwandi East registered an omission rate of 49.10 per cent, followed by Bhiwandi West at 44.72 per cent, Mumbra-Kalwa at 42.91 per cent, and Mankhurd Shivaji Nagar at 42.31 per cent.

In Mumbai, Chandivali, where Muslims constitute 27.6 per cent of the population, recorded a rate of 41.44 per cent, while Sion-Koliwada and Pune Cantonment also crossed the 40 per cent mark.

The figures do not establish that Muslim voters individually were excluded since the SIR data is not categorised by religion; however, the analysis instead examines constituencies where the Muslim population exceeds 20 per cent, notably Malegaon Central, where Muslims account for 78.4 per cent of the population, recorded an uncollectable rate of 23.46 per cent. By contrast, Bhiwandi East, with a Muslim population share of 51 per cent, recorded the highest rate at 49.10 per cent.

Among the 38 constituencies, voters marked as permanently shifted accounted for 42.05 per cent of those classified as uncollectable. Those listed as untraceable or absent constituted 35.59 per cent, while deceased voters accounted for 12.76 per cent and duplicate registrations for 8.33 per cent.

The developments have also drawn attention to voter awareness and documentation. Community activist Irfan Aqeel said the SIR exercise had prompted greater awareness in Muslim-dominated localities, with community groups helping residents understand documentation requirements and regularise their records.

In Delhi, a report by the Voter Adhikar Manch, based on Election Commission, Delhi Chief Electoral Officer and Sabar Institute data, found that the electorate fell from 1.56 crore on 31 January 2025 to 1.45 crore by 30 June 2026, when SIR began. This represented a reduction of 11,03,701 electors through routine monthly deletions, The Wire reported.

The report said deletions had sharply increased in the months immediately preceding SIR, with 3,39,509 deletions recorded in April 2026 alone. It further found that in 68 constituencies, the number of excluded electors exceeded the winning margin of the 2025 Assembly election.

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