Public Audit Reveals Over 100 Voters Wrongly Marked in Delhi's Okhla Constituency

A public audit conducted over seven days across 258 households found that at least 100 voters from two polling booths in Delhi’s Okhla constituency were wrongly classified as absent, shifted, dead, or duplicate (ASDD) during the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. These voters, many residing at the same address for multiple decades, expressed anger at being marked ‘untraceable’, ‘absent’, or ‘permanently shifted’ and having their only option to re-enrol using Form 6.

A Jan Sunwai, or public hearing, was held in the Batla House area on Sunday, October 18, 2026, for residents whose names were wrongly missing from Delhi’s draft electoral roll. The event was organized by civil society organizations including Jan Sarokar, Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS), Voter Adhikar Manch, and the National Federation of Indian Women (NFIW). While intended for residents of G and K blocks, covering polling booths 61 and 65, repeated announcements drew voters from other booths, with more than 150 registering to present their cases before a panel that included Supreme Court advocates Nayantara Roy and Sumita Hazarika, and transparency activists Anjali Bhardwaj and Amrita Johri.

Among those affected was Faiyaz Ahmed, 74, a retired professor of mechanical engineering at Jamia Millia Islamia University, who despite living at the same address for over five decades, was marked “untraceable/absent.” His wife, Anjum Ara, 62, was listed as “permanently shifted” in the ASDD list published on August 31. Their son, Babu Sardar Khan, stated he had submitted duly filled enumeration forms for both parents, yet only his name appeared in the draft roll. Mr. Khan collected Form 6 for his parents, meant for new voter enrolment.

Similarly, Naeemuddin, 48, who has lived at his address for 30 years, was marked as “permanently shifted.” He recounted visiting the booth-level officer (BLO) who took his photographs and signature on a form. Furious, Mr. Naeemuddin, a former government adviser, questioned how he could now be required to register as a new voter and lose his voting records, asking why Election Commission officials were not informing him, but social workers were.

Okhla constituency, which saw the second-highest rate of deletions in the draft roll published after the SIR enumeration phase, had over 1.85 lakh voters in the draft roll, with more than 67,000 names on the notice list and nearly 1.6 lakh appearing in the ASDD list. The Delhi Chief Electoral Officer’s office has been holding special camps every weekend since September 20 at all polling stations, aiming to ensure “no eligible voter to be left out of electoral roll.” Field officers were also directed to re-verify ASDD entries through door-to-door visits and restore eligible voters’ names.

However, approximately 20 individuals who spoke to The Hindu reported being unaware of these special camps. Some attended the public hearing because they did not know who their BLO was, while others stated their BLOs had not contacted them.

What to watch: Further re-verification efforts and voter re-enrollment processes.

Editor's note: The draft effectively synthesizes the public audit findings and the individual case studies provided in the source material.