‘We voted in 2025, now our names are gone’: Delhi residents question SIR deletions

For those looking for JJ Bela Estate on Google Maps, the search may lead them to Vijay Ghat, the memorial of former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri. But finding the people who live in the area requires some asking around.

National Herald visited the area to trace 632 voters from Part 33 (old) of the Lal Qila-Yamuna Bridge polling station under the Chandni Chowk Assembly constituency, whose names were removed from the draft electoral roll during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), with the voters marked as “shifted”.

Across the road from Vijay Ghat, near a large Hanuman temple, the only voter from Part 33 associated with the temple is its mahant, Kanchan Giri. A temple worker said the mahant had recently returned from a long journey and was resting.

A little further away, residents pointed towards a service lane beneath an overbridge as the location of the JJ Bela Estate settlement.

Among those living there is Yashpal, who stays with his mother, sister, wife and children. The family has 15 voters, all of whom, he said, have disappeared from the draft roll.

Yashpal said he had voted in the 2025 Delhi Assembly election and that his name was present on the electoral roll. He said a Booth Level Officer (BLO) had provided him with an SIR form, which he filled in and returned, but he did not know why his name and those of his family members were subsequently removed.

His sister Usha said their family had lived in the area for generations.

“We were born here in these fields. Our houses were demolished in 2003 and since then we have been forced to live on the road,” she said, pointing towards a DDA garden that she said was once their farmland.

Yashpal showed his Aadhaar card, which records his year of birth as 1972 and carries the address “Agriculture JJ Bela Estate, Vijay Ghat, Chandni Chowk”.

Several other residents living under the overbridge — including Srinivas, Tinku, Omwati, Meena, Suman, Mangal Pandey, Sheela Devi, Shalu and Radha — also said their names were missing from the draft roll.

‘We had 927 voters in 2025’

Kamal Master, another resident of the settlement, said he had helped fill SIR forms for more than 500 people in JJ Bela Estate.

He showed a 2025 electoral roll which, he said, contained at least 927 voters from the area. Before the SIR exercise in 2026, the number had fallen to 729, but after the revision only one voter appeared in the draft roll.

“We came to know on 31 August 2026 that all our votes had been removed,” Kamal said.

He said residents subsequently approached the Election Commission, where officials allegedly told them that the decision had been taken by the Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM), not the Election Commission.

Kamal alleged that SDM Manoj Kumar of Daryaganj had told residents that the area was flood-prone, stood on DDA land and was repeatedly subject to demolitions, and therefore voters from the area would not be enrolled.

Kamal also produced a 1961 electoral roll for the Chandni Chowk parliamentary constituency, pointing to the names of his grandfather Shrilal, grandmother Kalawati and great-grandfather Punilal. He said residents also had electoral rolls from 1975 and 2002 and had provided their details during the SIR process.

He questioned why residents of a similar settlement on DDA land in the Rajghat area under the Jangpura Assembly constituency continued to appear on the draft electoral roll.

“How did their votes get made? Why are we being asked for registry papers, water bills and electricity bills? If the law is the same, why is there discrimination against us?” he asked.

Kamal said the local MLA had also raised the issue with the Election Commission, following which BLO Garima Arya contacted residents and said she would visit the area on Sunday and help fill Form 6 applications.

According to Kamal, Arya told him that she had already filled the forms submitted by residents and that the decision to remove the names lay between the Election Commission and the SDM, not with her.

‘We are not foreigners’

Residents said the deletion of their names had added to their uncertainty after years of living in precarious conditions.

Janaki Devi, who has lived in JJ Bela Estate for 36 years after moving there from Firozabad in Uttar Pradesh following her marriage, said residents continued to live there through extreme weather and relied on government services.

“Whether it is summer, rain or winter, we live here. We also get ration and sometimes receive treatment at government hospitals,” she said.

“Only the voter ID was left; now that too has been taken away. I don't know what they think of us — insects or something,” she added.

Her neighbour Mangal Pandey said residents had recently received two months’ ration together but were uncertain about future supplies.

Janaki said no MP or MLA had visited them so far, but insisted that residents would continue trying to restore their names to the electoral roll.

“We are not foreigners. We are not Pakistani. We are people who live here and will remain here. Whether we live or die, we will get our voter IDs made,” she said.