On Monday, the final electoral roll in Meghalaya was published after the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), with 2.18 million electors, a net increase of 14,720 from the August 5 draft roll. The two voters flagged at the draft stage as suspected foreign nationals were excluded from the final roll, and the matter was referred to the home department.
HT has learnt that both men are of Nepalese origin and married to Indian women. They were found to be enrolled as voters in the Mawsynram constituency in the East Khasi Hills district.
Meghalaya chief electoral officer BDR Tiwari confirmed the two men have been excluded from the final roll and the matter has been forwarded to the appropriate agency.
The two men account for roughly 0.001% of the 1,87,126 names removed during the SIR, or about one in every 93,500 deletions. The draft-stage exclusions were attributed to death (81,490), absence (45,011), shifting (42,532), duplicate entries (6,701) and other reasons (4,668).
The pre-SIR roll had 2.35 million electors, and notices were issued to 6,51,735, either unmapped (2,22,786) or with logical discrepancies (4,28,949), and all hearings were completed.
The logical discrepancy criteria were not part of the process in Bihar, where the SIR began in 2025. It attracted attention when the process was undertaken in West Bengal.
{{/usCountry}}The logical discrepancy criteria were not part of the process in Bihar, where the SIR began in 2025. It attracted attention when the process was undertaken in West Bengal.
{{/usCountry}}West Bengal is the only state where electors flagged under this category face adjudication and cannot vote, making logical discrepancy notices a flashpoint.
ECI’s power to verify citizenship
Swapnil Tripathi of the think tank Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy said the Election Commission of India (ECI) does not have a general power to identify suspected foreign nationals, but can make a limited inquiry into a person’s claim of citizenship while revising rolls, since only citizens can be registered as voters.
In the Bihar SIR judgment, the Supreme Court in May said that if the ECI is unsatisfied about a person’s citizenship, it must refer the matter to the competent authority in the central government for inquiry.
Tripathi said this does not confer a blanket power on the ECI to identify or declare individuals as foreign nationals. “Its inquiry is limited to the question of eligibility for inclusion in the electoral rolls, and any deletion on grounds of citizenship remains subject to the outcome of adjudication by the competent authority.”
Union Home minister Amit Shah has repeatedly emphasised the policy to “detect, delete and deport” illegal immigrants, and that the SIR aims to cleanse electoral rolls of duplicate entries and undocumented immigrants. He has accused the Opposition of protesting against the SIR to keep illegal immigrants on the rolls.
Congress Jairam Ramesh questioned how many “ghuspaithiye (infiltrators)” have been detected, deleted and deported following SIR.
Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge has accused the government of using the rhetoric on illegal immigration to divert attention from the alleged exclusion of millions of voters.