Bela Estate Voters Fight Deletion from Delhi Draft Rolls as SIR Row Escalates

A small settlement of tarpaulin-roofed homes on the banks of the Yamuna has become the centre of a widening dispute over Delhi's electoral revision. Of the 728 voters registered in Bela Estate at the last election, just one features in the city's draft electoral rolls.

The Election Commission's Delhi office has said the remaining electors were placed in the ASDD category — absent, shifted, deceased or duplicate — after verification. It has also said that omission from the draft roll is not permanent exclusion: eligible voters whose names are missing can apply through Form 6 during the claims and objections window, which has been extended for the National Capital Territory until 30 October 2026. The office said the matter had already been taken up by the concerned Electoral Registration Officer.

Residents reject that explanation. They say they have lived in the settlement continuously and voted in every election, including in 2025, and that their names appear in the 2002 electoral rolls against which, they believe, electors are being mapped. Kamal, a teacher who lives in Bela Estate, said 550 forms were submitted from the settlement during the survey conducted by the Booth Level Officer, yet the names were still not recorded. "We've voted here from the beginning," he said. "We are included in the 2002 list, in the 2025 list."

For many, the anxiety runs deeper than a paperwork exercise. Pooja, a resident, said she believed the revision was being carried out with an eventual eviction in mind. Another resident, Maluda, said the community already lives without basic security or amenities. "We have no place to go, not even a place to defecate," Maluda said. "They have already taken our homes, what more do they want to take from us?"

Amma, an 80-year-old resident, said four generations of her family have lived in the settlement. "Why then have our votes been deleted?" she asked. Others displayed property papers and past voting records as proof of their ties to the area, with one resident saying the deletions appeared intended to erase the community. Residents fear the omissions could be used to cast them as recent arrivals rather than established residents of Delhi.

The controversy has acquired a national political dimension after Rahul Gandhi visited the settlement on Monday and attacked the Special Intensive Revision exercise as "vote chori", or vote theft, arguing that removing legitimate voters undermines the electoral process. His visit has sharpened an already charged political battle over the SIR.

In Bela Estate itself, the dispute remains immediate and local. Residents want to know why names they say have been on the rolls for years have suddenly disappeared — and whether those claims will be reflected in the final electoral roll.