Wiped out 15% voters: ex-CEC slams India’s poll body

New Delhi: Former Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) S.Y. Quraishi has sharply criticised flaws in India’s voter-list revision process and the exaggerated figures being circulated by political leaders over alleged illegal immigration.

Speaking at an event organised by a national daily, Quraishi sarcastically pointed to the large-scale exclusion of eligible citizens from electoral rolls, saying the Election Commission had effectively “erased” nearly 15% of the country’s population from voter lists.

He stressed that millions of eligible Indians aged 18 and above remain outside the electoral rolls despite having a constitutional right to vote. Such exclusions, he warned, can undermine public confidence in the credibility of the democratic process, particularly when authorities claim to be working towards error-free voter lists.

Quraishi also questioned political claims that India is home to crores of illegal immigrants, arguing that such massive figures are often cited without credible official data or documentary evidence. He called for clarity on whether the government or the Union Home Ministry possesses authoritative evidence to support such numbers and warned against using inflated demographic claims to spread fear and secure political advantage.

He further rejected narratives suggesting that the population of a particular religious community is growing uncontrollably. Official census trends, he noted, show declining fertility rates across religious groups, with education and improving living standards contributing to the decline.

Quraishi stressed that electoral authorities must provide transparent explanations and verification when large-scale voter deletions are alleged, ensuring that technological processes do not deprive even a single eligible citizen of the right to vote.