Deleted voters deepen India’s crisis of trust

The Opposition rhetoric lacks conviction; only a mass democratic movement can protect constitutional ideals.

The opposition parties in India are either naive or we must conclude they aren’t truly sincere when they shout about vote chori. If they truly believe what they say about vote chori and massive targeted deletions, why are they participating in these fake elections and sitting in legislatures elected based on these voter list deletions? I’ve argued for a long time that given serious questions about the fairness of due process in elections, the entire Opposition should boycott elections and resign their seats from all legislatures: the Lok Sabha and state assemblies. This will deny the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legitimacy in the eyes of the people.

Let me say this about Mamata Banerjee’s stand. If she’s really serious about rejecting the declared mandate and refuses to resign, it means that she doesn’t recognise the assembly to be constituted, implying she considers the outgoing legislature still valid. In that case, she should say all her party members who got elected in this illegitimate election would quit the House, and she should make them quit. Then, her stance carries conviction. If you say, ‘my party’s winners are ok, but your party’s winners are illegally elected’, what does that say about her conviction?

An argument with conviction would be to reject the results, even if she won, because the deletion of 93 lakh votes and the denial of voting rights to 27 lakh people vitiates the process, irrespective of the winner or loser. If this were her position, it would be considered genuine, and her stance would be accepted as taken with conviction. Now, she is open to accusations of being a sore loser. With the large-scale deletions and a humongous number of ‘under adjudication category’ voters not allowed to vote, it is time that all opposition parties sit together and do some serious thinking.

Consider Bihar and the Vote Adhikar Yatra led by Rahul Gandhi, described as “a united fight to protect the most sacred right in our democracy – the right to vote.” It covered over 1,300 km and 20-plus districts to “expose voter list manipulation and demand clean voter lists from the Election Commission.” Looking at the surging crowds, the Congress fancied that they’d somehow win. So, victory mattered more than disenfranchised people. If they won, should it be the case that deletions and disenfranchisement did not matter?

Any eligible person struck off the electoral rolls should worry everyone who remains on the rolls. Recollect that during the hearings regarding the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter lists in West Bengal in April 2026, Justice Joymalya Bagchi of the Supreme Court raised concerns about scenarios where the deletions might turn out to be more than the margins of victory, which would invite serious scrutiny from the Supreme Court. One implication of this is that a deletion becomes an issue only on the basis of the preferences of those who are not deleted. If those on the voters’ list choose a party/candidate and the margin of that party’s/candidate’s victory is less than the number of deleted citizens, do the deleted matter? Note that after the results, nobody discusses those deleted from the electoral rolls in Bihar.

A similar story is repeated in states that went to the elections but about which there is not as much controversy – Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Puducherry – and the states that did not go for elections but had SIR, like Uttar Pradesh, where 2.8 crore voter deletions happened: What about them? No political party, no media, not even the so-called independent digital platforms talk about them. In other words, do 2.8 crore people not matter to us when there’s no election?

In defence of India

Boycotting elections and resigning from legislatures until this institutional capture is broken might sound and look like an ideal but impractical solution. But very rarely do the ideal and the practical converge in real life. In our nation’s life, this is the moment that calls precisely for that convergence. At this juncture of our Republic, when we face a deep crisis, the practical is ideal, and the ideal is practical.

If we are to believe that Mamata Banerjee is a real crusader, let her decide that all her newly elected MLAs resign or refuse to take oath in the new legislature that she questions the legitimacy of. Then, she will carry conviction in my reckoning. Otherwise, she will be vulnerable to the charge that she is just a sore loser. But can the Opposition bite the bullet? It is not a business-as-usual situation anymore. Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures. After all, it is the Republic that is at stake. It’s our Republic. We gave the Constitution unto ourselves.

Only a peaceful, Gandhian ‘feet on the ground’ movement can save our 1950 compact. The values embedded in that 1950 compact – Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, Justice, and Secularism – can be defended only by that. Each one of us must decide and work for rescuing the Republic and the Idea of India. Keep in mind that everyone who lives in this land owns this country. It’s not owned by any one denomination, religion, caste, creed, region, colour, eating or dressing habit, or tradition. It’s owned by everyone. Forces that are in disagreement with this idea of India assaulted it and worked for a hundred years to undermine it. Today, there is no alternative to defending the essential character of India, a country, a territory, a space that is and must be available for everybody.

(The writer is a noted economist, political commentator, and a former communications advisor to the Government of Andhra Pradesh; Syndicate: The Billion Press)

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.