BHUBANESWAR: The Opposition BJD and Congress on Monday expressed concern over the deletion of 9.8 lakh names from the voters’ list in the state ahead of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), and urged that voting rights of citizens should not be compromised.
Addressing a media conference here, senior BJD vice-president Debi Prasad Mishra, deputy leader of the Opposition Prasanna Acharya and general secretary Bijay Nayak raised questions over the functioning of the Election Commission India (ECI) in view of deletion of names from the voters’ list through SIR in several other states.
The BJD leaders said the ECI carries out revision of voters’ list every year in January, during which around seven lakh names are removed in Odisha. “The deletion of nearly three lakh more names in the annual exercise this year has raised serious concern,” they said adding, more names are likely to be struck out from the rolls during SIR.
The BJD leaders further said a delegation from the party had met the ECI in New Delhi on August 19, 2025 and urged that the names of people who migrate outside the state for work should not be removed from the voters’ list. “Removing citizens’ names from the voters’ list deprives them of their fundamental right,” they added.
Claiming that over 50 million voters have been removed from the rolls in about 12 states and Union Territories, the BJD leaders expressed worry that eligible voters in the state might be excluded during SIR in Odisha.
“The fact that 9.8 lakh voters have been removed within just one year and four months, despite being on the rolls earlier, raises significant concerns,” they said seeking intervention of the government and the ECI in the matter.
President of the Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) Bhakta Charan Das said there is nothing wrong in deleting the names of dead persons from the electoral rolls, but that should be scrutinised. “The names of persons who have migrated for work should not be deleted. Deletion of 9.8 lakh names from the voters’ list is quite a large number,” he said.
Revenue and Disaster Management minister Suresh Pujari lashed out at the Opposition saying they see everything as conspiracy like the TMC in West Bengal. Indicating that the deletions were majorly infilitrators, he said, “I think there are more infiltrators in Odisha than the deletion of names from the electoral roll suggests.”