‘Am I not a citizen’: Sibal hits out at ECI over SIR notice; BJP responds

Rajya Sabha MP and senior advocate Kapil Sibal alleged that BLOs were failing to physically deliver notices and questioned why he had not received one.

Rajya Sabha MP and senior advocate Kapil Sibal on Sunday criticised the Election Commission of India over the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in the Capital after he was served notice in the “unmapped with last SIR” category.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal said the notice issued to him has claimed a mismatch between the names of his father/self as given in the current electoral roll and as given in the electoral rolls prepared during the previous SIR. (Sanchit Khanna/ Hindustan Times)

“I want to ask (chief election commissioner) Gyanesh Kumar, how did you send me a notice? Am I not a citizen of this country?” Sibal said at a press conference in New Delhi.

Sibal said the notice issued to him has claimed a mismatch between the names of his father/self as given in the current electoral roll and as given in the electoral rolls prepared during the previous SIR.

He said his enumeration form this year carried the same details as his 1998 voter record — assembly constituency number 188, part number 95, and serial number 167— and had been signed off by a booth-level officer as a match.

“This is uncontroverted evidence that everything is matching. Then how is it that my notice has been sent to me in the unmapped category?” Sibal said.

Sibal alleged that booth-level officers were failing to physically deliver notices and questioned why he had not received one.

“Till date, I have not got a physical copy of the notice sent to me. I don’t have a copy; it hasn't been served here, and it’s not in my office. Had I not known about this, they would have sent similar notices and deleted my name unless then I go and file a petition in the Supreme Court and say ‘No, please don’t delete my name.’ What’s going on in this country?” Sibal said.

He further alleged that local corporators were identifying voters unlikely to back the Bharatiya Janata Party and ensuring they received notices that were difficult to contest, though he cited no specific instance to support the claim. He also alleged that the names of voters from Uttar Pradesh were being entered against locked houses in Delhi so people could vote there before Delhi’s own polls.

“What kind of special intensive revision is it? Special intensive deletion and special intensive addition, delete valid votes and add invalid votes. That is what this is all about,” he said.

Sibal argued the process would hit ordinary citizens far harder than public figures like himself. “If this happens to people like us, who are hopefully public figures, then what happens to the ordinary man? How will he ever cope with all this?” he said, adding that most voters would not have the birth certificates or school-leaving documents the Election Commission was now asking for.

Citing figures he said he drew from the Delhi Chief Electoral Officer’s website, Sibal said 32,27,443 voters in Delhi were sent discrepancy notices. Of these, 41% (13,40,213) fell in the “unmapped with last SIR” category, while 23.71% involved a mismatch in a parent’s name, and 16.86% a mismatch in the voter’s own name, with smaller shares tied to age gaps between parents, children and grandparents, he said.

BJP responds

BJP spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia said that when the issue of SIR is pending before the Hon’ble Supreme Court, allegations must be established through facts and law, not “political rhetoric.”

He said calling the SIR “special intensive deletion” and levelling allegations that the EC is manipulating electoral rolls to keep the BJP in power are serious charges.

If Mr Sibal has evidence, let him place it before the Court. As a senior advocate, he should show faith in the Supreme Court rather than pronounce a verdict outside it, Bhatia added.

Delhi’s final electoral roll is due on November 4, ahead of assembly polls set for next year. Sibal said he intends to gather more data on the exercise. “I will come back to you, to show what kind of exercise is underway to prepare a voters’ list ahead of the 2029 elections,” he said.