Sri Vijaya Puram, Oct. 6: Chairman of the Campaign Committee of the Andaman and Nicobar Territorial Congress Committee (ANTCC) TSG Bhasker has raised concerns over the reduction in the number of electors following the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and demanded an immediate review of the exercise.
Bhasker has sought the publication of booth-wise details of voters whose names were deleted, along with the reasons for each deletion, so that affected electors and political parties can verify the changes.
According to the figures cited by Bhasker, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands Parliamentary Constituency had 3,27,323 electors during the 2024 Lok Sabha election, while the present roll contains around 2,58,040 electors. He described the difference of 69,283 electors as a reduction of about 21 per cent.
However, official electoral-roll data published following the SIR records 3,10,404 electors as the electorate on October 27, 2025, before the revision, and 2,58,040 electors in the final roll published on February 21, 2026. The Election Department said the exercise involved physical verification of electors and removal of ineligible entries, including deceased persons, people who had permanently shifted outside the Islands and duplicate enrolments.
The official figures show that 64,014 names were removed while preparing the draft roll. During the subsequent claims and objections period, 16,919 electors were added and 5,269 further ineligible electors were deleted. The final electorate stood at 2,58,040.
Bhasker, however, has questioned the scale of the reduction and sought greater transparency in the process. He demanded that the Election authorities make public the booth-wise list of deleted names and the reasons for each deletion, allowing citizens to establish whether eligible voters have been omitted.
Bhasker also linked the issue to the 2024 Lok Sabha mandate and called for accountability over the deletion of voters. He said that if the voters he referred to were subsequently found to have been ineligible, the sitting MP from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands should resign, arguing that the MP had been elected on the basis of the earlier electoral mandate.
He similarly referred to the wider SIR exercise across the country and claimed that more than 13.3 crore voter names had been removed. On that basis, he questioned the legitimacy of the mandate of the government at the Centre and called for its resignation.
Bhasker further demanded cancellation of the SIR process in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and restoration of the earlier electoral rolls.
The Election Commission provides mechanisms for electors to check their names and apply for inclusion or correction in electoral rolls. Its citizen service portal currently provides facilities for voter registration and electoral-roll related applications.
The controversy centres on the distinction between names removed during the SIR exercise and voters who may have been found ineligible following verification. The official A&N data states that the deletions included deceased, permanently shifted and duplicate electors, while the final roll was published after the claims and objections process.
Bhasker has called for the complete deletion data to be placed in the public domain and for the SIR exercise in the Islands to be reviewed.
