The Election Commission of India (ECI) has not released figures on the number of foreign illegal immigrants removed from voter lists [2].

This lack of transparency occurs as the government conducts a massive overhaul of the electoral rolls, raising concerns about the potential disenfranchisement of legitimate Indian citizens.

The process, known as the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), was announced on June 24, 2025 [1]. The ECI said the revision was necessary to remove the names of foreign illegal immigrants that had been erroneously included in the electoral rolls [3].

By June 2026, one year after the exercise began, the ECI had still not disclosed the specific number of foreign nationals identified or removed [2]. This silence persists despite the scale of the operation, which has caused significant controversy in West Bengal. Reports indicate that millions of voters in that region have lost their voting rights [4].

Government officials, including Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, have defended the SIR. According to statements attributed to the BJP, the exercise targets only those who came from outside India — referred to as infiltrators — and does not affect Indian citizens [5].

However, these claims are contested. Reports from West Bengal suggest the purge has predominantly affected Muslim voters, implying that Indian citizens are being removed from the rolls [4]. Further legal ambiguity surrounds the process itself; some reports said that the term "Special Intensive Revision" does not actually exist within official election rules [3].

“The ECI has not released figures on the number of foreign illegal immigrants removed from voter lists.”

The gap between government assertions and the reported loss of voting rights suggests a systemic tension over citizenship verification in India. Because the ECI has not provided numerical data a year into the process, it is currently impossible to verify if the SIR is exclusively removing non-citizens or if it is inadvertently, or intentionally, purging eligible voters based on ethnicity or religion.