Pune: VBA Chief Prakash Ambedkar Questions Election Commission’s Role In Maharashtra SIR

Pune: Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) national president Adv. Prakash Ambedkar on Sunday questioned the Election Commission’s role in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Maharashtra and sought greater transparency in the process.

Ambedkar claimed that the exercise could result in around 2.90 crore names being deleted from the electoral rolls while nearly 60 lakh new voters could be added. He said the VBA had raised these figures at a press conference in April 2026 and claimed that developments during the SIR had followed the pattern it had anticipated.

However, the current electoral roll data does not establish that 2.90 crore voters will be deleted. Maharashtra Chief Electoral Officer S Chockalingam has said that the 2.07 crore figure reported during the SIR process referred to enumeration forms that could not be collected. The draft roll was subsequently published with a claims and objections process before the final electoral roll is prepared.

Ambedkar said the VBA had written to Maharashtra Chief Electoral Officer S Chockalingam seeking the publication of the notification, correspondence and legal provisions related to the SIR process. He claimed that the request had not received a response.

“After the SIR was announced in Maharashtra, we wrote to Chief Electoral Officer Chockalingam, demanding that the notification and correspondence related to the exercise be made available to all political parties. We have still not received a response,” Ambedkar said.

He said the VBA had approached the Bombay High Court over the issue and questioned the Election Commission’s authority to conduct the SIR in its present form, referring to Section 21(3) of the Representation of the People Act.

Ambedkar also questioned the process through which names could be removed from electoral rolls. He argued that the Election Commission could not itself determine an individual’s citizenship and that such matters should be decided by the competent authority under the Citizenship Act.

“More than two crore names in Maharashtra have been marked for deletion on grounds such as ‘the neighbour could not be found’ or ‘the person does not live here’. If a voter’s name is to be deleted from the electoral roll, there must be an application or complaint against that voter. A competent committee must decide before a name can be deleted,” he claimed.

The Election Commission’s position, however, is that the draft process includes safeguards and opportunities for voters to restore or correct their entries. The Maharashtra CEO has said that voters whose names are missing from the draft can apply for inclusion through Form 6, while Form 7 is used for objections to entries and Form 8 for corrections.

Ambedkar Seeks Urgent Hearing

Referring to the Supreme Court proceedings related to the SIR in Bihar, Ambedkar said he would request the Bombay High Court to hear petitions challenging the Maharashtra SIR process on an urgent basis.

He also appealed to opposition parties to come together over what he described as irregularities in the electoral process. Questioning protests being conducted under the leadership of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Ambedkar asked why opposition parties could not jointly raise the issue.

“Instead of an agitation being conducted on behalf of only one party under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi, why are all opposition parties not being brought together? All opposition parties need to come together against irregularities in the electoral process and give the issue a broader form,” he said.

Ambedkar also referred to Supreme Court judgments, including Election Commission of India v. Sivan Pillai and Election Commission of India v. Ashok Kumar, while raising broader constitutional questions about the functioning of the electoral system.

“The election machinery requires continuous scrutiny and vigilance,” he said.

‘People Must Participate’

Ambedkar also alleged that the country was facing a growing threat of what he described as “corporate rule”, claiming that corporate influence over power and decision-making was increasing.

“Instead of looking at which political party has started the agitation, everyone should focus on how the agitation can succeed. People should not merely watch; they should participate in the agitation,” he said.

Appealing to citizens to take an active role, Ambedkar said, “If the unity and sovereignty of this country are to be protected, the Indian people themselves need to take the initiative.”

He concluded by using an analogy involving Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, urging citizens not to expect someone else to lead a movement but to take responsibility themselves.