"Phantom Votes" Found? ECI Purges 14.5% of Gujarat's Electorate

In a revelation that has shaken the foundations of Gujarat's electoral integrity, the Election Commission of India (ECI) released draft electoral rolls on December 19, 2025, deleting a staggering 73.73 lakh (7.3 million) names from the voter list. This massive purge has wiped out nearly 14.5% of the state's total electorate, reducing the voter count from 5.08 crore to 4.34 crore overnight. While the ECI attributes the deletions to a routine "Special Intensive Revision" (SIR) targeting dead and shifted voters, the sheer scale of the removal has handed the Opposition a potent weapon, validating their long-standing claims that millions of "bogus votes" may have influenced past election outcomes.

The Context (How We Got Here)

The deletions follow a month-long door-to-door verification campaign conducted between November 4 and December 14, 2025. The exercise was partly a response to persistent allegations; as recently as August 2025, the Gujarat Congress had claimed the existence of over 60 lakh bogus voters. The release of the draft roll confirms numbers even higher than those allegations. The deletions include 18.07 lakh deceased voters and over 40 lakh "permanently shifted" individuals, painting a picture of an electoral roll that had been allowed to bloat significantly over the years.

The Key Players (Who & So What)

• Hareet Shukla (Chief Electoral Officer): The administrator. He maintains the revision was a standard procedure to ensure "100% error-free" rolls, citing migration and death as natural causes for the cleanup.
• Amit Chavda (Gujarat Congress President): The vindicated critic. He argues the data is an admission of guilt, stating, "The commission has admitted that over 74 lakh names were invalid. This proves our claim of large-scale voter fraud was not a conspiracy theory, but a statistical reality."
• Migrant Workers (Surat & Ahmedabad): The missing millions. The deletion of 40 lakh "shifted" voters largely represents the industrial workforce. Their removal from the rolls signals a massive, unrecorded exodus from Gujarat’s industrial hubs post-pandemic.

The BIGSTORY Reframe

While headlines focus on the "Clean Up," the deeper story is the "Industrial Exodus Indicator." The deletion of 40.25 lakh "permanently shifted" voters is a massive economic red flag masquerading as electoral data. It suggests that nearly 8% of the state's adult population—likely migrant laborers in textile and diamond hubs like Surat—have left their registered addresses and possibly the state entirely. This voter list is the most accurate census of labor migration we have, and it points to a "hollowed out" workforce that economic data has yet to capture. Furthermore, the use of AI-driven "Photo Similar Entries" (PSE) algorithms to identify 3.8 lakh duplicates raises questions: were these genuine duplicates, or did the algorithm disenfranchise lookalikes in a rush to sanitize the database?

The Implications (Why This Changes Things)

The immediate impact is a scramble for verification. With the objection window closing on January 18, 2026, millions of citizens must now check if they have been "digitally evicted." Politically, this resets the battlefield. Future elections will be fought on a significantly smaller, leaner voter base. If the 74 lakh deleted names were indeed "phantom votes" that skewed previous margins, the 2026 and 2027 electoral contests may yield vastly different results than historical trends suggest.

The Closing Question (Now, Think About This)

If 14.5% of the voters on the list didn't exist or didn't live there, were the election results of the last five years truly representative of the people who did?

FAQs

Why were 74 lakh voters deleted in Gujarat in December 2025? The deletion was the result of a "Special Intensive Revision" (SIR) by the Election Commission. The primary reasons cited were: 18.07 lakh deceased voters, 40.25 lakh permanently shifted voters, and roughly 6.5 lakh duplicate or multiple entries identified through physical verification and AI algorithms.

How can I check if my name is deleted from the Gujarat voter list 2025? You can verify your status by visiting the CEO Gujarat website (ceo.gujarat.gov.in) or the national portal voters.eci.gov.in. Search using your EPIC number or personal details. If your name is missing, you must file a claim (Form 6) immediately.

What is the last date to file objections for the Gujarat voter list? The window to file claims and objections is currently open and closes on January 18, 2026. Citizens have until this date to correct errors or re-apply for inclusion before the final roll is published.

Does this prove the "bogus voting" allegations? While the ECI terms it a routine cleanup, the Opposition Congress argues that the sheer scale (14.5% of the electorate) validates their previous claims that millions of invalid votes existed on the rolls, potentially affecting past election margins.

Sources

News Coverage

• Times of India – SIR in Gujarat: Nearly 74 lakh names deleted from rolls
• Deccan Chronicle – Voter count in Gujarat decline by 73.73 lakh
• Gujarat Samachar – Congress alleges 'vote theft' after EC admission
• Financial Express – Gujarat Voter List 2025: 73 lakh names deleted, how to check

Research & Analysis

• Dynamite News – Special Intensive Revision removes 73 lakh names