NEW DELHI: Lok Sabha leader of opposition Rahul Gandhi on Monday again targeted the Election Commission and CEC Gyanesh Kumar over the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, citing the case of Delhi’s Bela Estate, where he claimed 727 of 728 names were removed from the voter list.Sharing a video of his phone call with the SDM over the SIR exercise on X, the Rae Bareli MP wrote, “728 people live in Bela Estate on the banks of the Yamuna. After SIR, only one name remains in the voter list – the other 727 names have been struck off.”He said the residents had been living in the area for decades and had voted in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and the 2025 Delhi assembly elections.“In 2023, their homes were demolished – but they didn’t go anywhere, they’re still right here,” Rahul said.Rahul said he visited the residents in their jhuggis and heard directly from them about what they alleged had happened during the SIR exercise.He said he also spoke to the SDM over the issue. “On the phone with the SDM, I said exactly this – having a house or not has no connection to the right to vote. CEC Gyanesh Kumar himself has said that “House Number 0″ is for the homeless. Yet, 727 people’s names have been struck off,” he wrote.
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Former Congress president further criticised the SIR exercise, calling it “a method of vote theft” and alleging that it was taking away the only political power available to some of the country’s poorest citizens.He also targeted chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar amid a controversy over an Indian Express report on alleged differences between the CEC and the other two election commissioners.“Gyanesh Kumar will go. But the system that made him do this will also have to answer,” Rahul said.