Rajasthan Voter Rolls Show 30 Lakh Gap as New Draft Opens for Corrections

Three voter totals and a deadline to check names

Rajasthan's draft electoral roll published on November 12, 2026, lists 5,26,67,416 voters, placing it between two other official counts that differ by about 30 lakh people. The latest revision gives residents until December 11 to seek changes before the final roll is published on January 4, 2027.

Chief Electoral Officer Naveen Mahajan's figures show 2,75,24,780 male voters, 2,51,42,052 female voters and 584 transgender voters in the draft prepared under the Special Summary Revision (SSR) 2027. Together, those categories total about 5.27 crore voters, although the headline figure has generally been expressed as 5.26 crore.

The final Special Intensive Revision (SIR) roll, published on February 21, 2026, recorded more than 5.15 crore voters. The State Election Commission (SEC), which handles local elections, has used a roll containing about 5.45 crore names for the same 199 Assembly constituencies.

Using the rounded totals, the new draft is about 11 lakh above the February list and 19 lakh below the SEC list. The largest gap, between the SIR and SEC figures, is about 30 lakh, or three million people.

The practical issue reaches beyond the arithmetic. A resident whose name appears on the list used for a municipal or panchayat election may need to check separately whether it appears on the list maintained for Assembly and parliamentary elections. The authorities have explained why different versions were used, but the dispute also concerns which individual names were removed and why.

Why two election authorities have different lists

The Election Commission of India (ECI) prepares electoral rolls for Lok Sabha and state Assembly elections under Article 324 of the Constitution and the Representation of the People Act, 1950. Rajasthan's Chief Electoral Officer oversees the state's work within that framework.

The SEC has a separate constitutional responsibility for panchayat and municipal elections under Articles 243K and 243ZA. In simple terms, one authority manages the voter lists used to elect national and state legislators, while the other manages elections to local government.

SEC Secretary Rajesh Verma said preparations for local elections began before the SIR was completed. The commission therefore used the ECI's earlier electoral roll, last updated on January 1, 2025. He said the SEC traditionally relies on lists updated through the ECI's annual summary revision.

Mahajan also confirmed that the SEC used the list from before the SIR. That decision explains the starting point of the local election database: it retained an older version while the ECI's intensive revision produced a substantially smaller electorate.

How the intensive revision changed the count

The February SIR reduced Rajasthan's electorate from approximately 5.47 crore to 5.15 crore. During that exercise, 44.28 lakh names were deleted and 12.91 lakh voters were added.

Those additions and deletions produce a net reduction of 31.37 lakh names. The figures show why the exercise drew attention: the number removed was more than three times the number added.

SIR involves a deeper verification process, including visits to households by booth level officers. Existing voters receive forms containing their details and are required to submit them for their names to be considered in the revised roll.

The process therefore involves more than registering people who have recently become eligible. It also checks people already on the list, making the handling of forms and decisions about deletions central to the final result.

What the latest summary revision does

The SSR follows a different method. It starts with the last published final roll and updates it through additions, deletions and corrections. Existing voters are generally carried forward without having to establish eligibility afresh simply to keep their names.

For an ordinary voter, the difference is straightforward. An intensive revision requires a broad verification exercise involving existing entries. A summary revision generally updates the existing register as people become eligible, move, die or need their details corrected.

The ECI had put its regular summary revision on hold for the SIR and later resumed it amid public criticism of large numbers of deletions. The November draft now provides another opportunity to seek inclusion or corrections.

The higher SSR total gives Rajasthan a new statewide figure, but a complete explanation requires the number of additions, deletions and corrections between the February final roll and the November draft. No detailed reconciliation of those changes has been announced in the information accompanying this dispute.

The comparison involving 26.63 lakh names

Nikhil Dey, founder of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan, compared the electoral lists and found that 26.63 lakh voters deleted during the SIR continued to appear on the SEC's rolls for the 2026 local elections.

His figure amounts to about 60% of the 44.28 lakh names deleted during the intensive revision. It gives the dispute a more specific focus than the difference between statewide totals: a large group of entries remained in one electoral database after being removed from another.

Dey questioned why the SEC retained the older register when the revised SIR list was available. He also asked how voters marked as deceased during the SIR could continue to appear on the local election lists.

The 26.63 lakh figure covers names deleted during the SIR that remained on the SEC register. Dey's question about entries marked deceased concerns the reasons recorded for particular deletions. The published comparison does not provide a breakdown of the entire group by deletion category.

Officials and Congress take different positions

Mahajan said no objections had been raised in Rajasthan over the final SIR roll. His statement addresses the response to that completed exercise, while the new SSR has its own period for claims and objections.

Congress national spokesperson Pooja Tripathi challenged the transparency and accountability of the revision process. She called for the SIR exercise to be scrapped and sought an explanation of the verification supporting names removed from one database but retained in another.

Tripathi described the issue as a matter of eligible citizens being able to vote:

An electoral roll is not merely an administrative document; it's a gateway to democracy. The Election Commission must ensure that the process of cleaning voter lists does not end up disenfranchising genuine voters. No eligible Indian should have to fight the system to prove their right to vote.

Her demand goes beyond publishing another total. She wants the authorities to explain decisions affecting individual voters and to reconcile their databases before issuing the respective rolls. Verma's explanation, meanwhile, centres on the timing of local election preparations and the SEC's use of an earlier register.

The dates behind the discrepancy

Rajasthan's figures involve several stages of electoral preparation rather than three counts taken on the same day. The sequence helps explain how the databases moved apart:

• January 1, 2025: The earlier ECI roll used as the SEC's starting point was last updated.
• February 21, 2026: The final SIR roll was published with more than 5.15 crore voters.
• During preparations for the 2026 local elections: The SEC used the earlier roll, with approximately 5.45 crore names across the same 199 Assembly constituencies.
• November 12, 2026: The SSR 2027 draft was published and the claims and objections period opened.
• December 11, 2026: The claims and objections period closes.
• January 4, 2027: The final SSR roll is scheduled for publication.

The SEC figure has also been dated to early October 2025, while the comparison concerns lists used for the 2026 local elections. The precise publication chronology of that SEC version needs clarification. Its stated basis, however, is the ECI roll updated on January 1, 2025.

What voters can do before December 11

Mahajan urged eligible residents to check their names in the draft and apply for inclusion if they are missing. The draft rolls have been uploaded to the Chief Electoral Officer's website and shared with recognised political parties.

Residents can use the prescribed forms to seek inclusion, deletion or correction during the period from November 12 to December 11. Checking an entry includes making sure the person's details are correct, rather than looking only for a familiar name.

The qualifying date for this revision is January 1, 2027. Citizens who complete 18 years of age by that date can apply for enrolment. Young citizens who turn 18 by October 1, 2027, can also submit advance applications.

The January 4 publication will follow the handling of claims and objections, so the final electorate may differ from November's draft. For residents affected by an omission or an incorrect entry, the current correction period is the immediate opportunity to bring the problem to the election authorities.

What a reconciliation would need to explain

The authorities' explanations establish that the SEC and ECI lists began from different versions of the register. A fuller reconciliation would connect those versions by showing which entries were added, deleted, corrected or retained at each stage.

The same exercise would help explain how the electorate moved from about 5.15 crore in February to more than 5.26 crore in November. Statewide totals show the size of the change; decisions attached to individual entries explain who was affected.

Rajasthan's next scheduled milestone is January 4, 2027. Until then, the immediate tasks are processing applications and objections, correcting entries and explaining the differences between the registers used by the two election authorities.

Key Points

• The November 12 SSR draft lists 5,26,67,416 voters in Rajasthan.
• The February SIR roll recorded more than 5.15 crore voters, compared with about 5.45 crore on the SEC's local election register.
• SEC Secretary Rajesh Verma said local election preparations used the earlier ECI roll updated on January 1, 2025.
• Nikhil Dey's comparison found 26.63 lakh names deleted during the SIR still present on the SEC lists.
• Claims and objections close on December 11, 2026. The final SSR roll is scheduled for January 4, 2027.