Election Commission's SIR exercise identifies just 1,600 foreigners on voter lists in six states

When the Election Commission of India (ECI) announced the special intensive revision in Bihar last year, it mentioned the “inclusion of the names of foreign illegal immigrants” as one of the motivations for the exercise.

In Karnataka officials 716 foreign nationals for the removal. (Hindustan Times)Yet, in at least six states where SIR was completed or is ongoing, the number of suspected foreign nationals – roughly around 1,600 at least – detected till now is minuscule compared to the electorate and the scale of deletions, HT has found.

In these states, the size of the electorate is 98.6 million. In Karnataka, where SIR has deleted 9.97 million names in the final rolls, the authorities identified 716 foreign nationals for removal, including 545 Nepalese citizens in Bengaluru North, said an official from the state Chief Electoral Officer’s (CEO) office.

On Tuesday, Karnataka chief electoral officer V Anbukkumar had confirmed that foreign nationals were detected. “Yes, we have detected foreigners. Their number is definitely less than 1,000,” he had told reporters. In Dakshina Kannada, electoral officials said, 40 foreign nationals were detected, including 17 from Nepal, six each from Australia and the United States, five from Canada, two from Britain, and one each from the Netherlands, South Africa, Ireland and Norway.

Uttara Kannada, as per district officials, had 22 detections, involving citizens of Nepal, Pakistan, the United States and Bangladesh. In Udupi, 47 foreign nationals from countries including Nepal, the United States, Britain, France and Canada were detected, district election officerTK Swaroopa told reporters.

“Some people who possessed voter identity cards could not provide details of other documents, including school certificates and property records, during verification,” said an officer familiar with the exercise. HT spoke to the CEOs of 26states and Union territories where SIR was completed or draft rolls published.

Officials from 11 states responded. Six gave a count of suspected foreigners. Four said they didn’t maintain the data. Odisha said it found such cases but did not record a figure. “We did find suspected foreign nationals on the rolls but didn’t keep any figures,” an Odisha state official said.

ECI said it never asked states for this data. “States were not asked to collect this data separately. We also don’t have combined or state-wise data on this. If any such cases came up, they were placed under the ‘Others’ category in ASDDO.

But ECI has not asked them to provide these details,” a senior ECI official said. In Jharkhand, where draft rolls were published on August 5 and final rolls are scheduled on November 30, officials identified three foreign nationals – all from Afghanistan, saida state CEO official.

The draft roll had 22.1 million names, dropping roughly 4.36 million names from the pre-SIR roll of 26.46 million people. In Meghalaya, two men of Nepalese origin, both married to Indian women, were found on the rolls, said state CEO BDR Tiwari.

The two were found at Mawsynram in East Khasi Hills. “We found two Nepalese men on the rolls. They were immediately removed and the matter has been referred to the home department,” said Tiwari. The final roll, published on October 26, comprised 2.18 million names, dropping 165,682 names in all.

In Kerala, authorities detected around 500 people who held foreign citizenship but were still on the rolls, said a senior state CEO official. The state’s final roll, published on February 21, comprised 26.95 million names, dropping 897,211names in all.

In Goa, authorities detected 419 suspected foreign passport holders, said state CEO Sanjay Goel. The state’s final roll, published on February 21, comprised 1.06 million names, dropping 127,468 names in all. Mizoram reported no such cases.

The state’s final roll, published on September 7, comprised 835,000 names, dropping 39,000 names in all. CEO Garima Gupta said that the draft roll showed no evidence of foreign nationals being enrolled. Officials in the CEO of Punjab, Delhi, Uttarakhand and Telangana said they did not maintain this data.

Punjab CEO Anindita Mitra said, “We only categorised electors under the ASDD categories. This data was not collected.”