6.5 crore voters dropped from India's electoral rolls
India just saw a major clean-up of its voter lists—over 6.5 crore names have been deleted across nine states and three Union Territories, dropping the total number of registered voters from about 51 crore to 44 crore.
Why should you care?
This isn't just a numbers game. Uttar Pradesh led with nearly 2.9 crore deletions (almost one in five voters), while Tamil Nadu and West Bengal also saw big cuts.
Most names were removed due to people moving away, passing on, or being listed twice—but the SIR was also motivated by a push to verify citizenship and weed out illegal migrants, especially from Bangladesh and Myanmar, although the official reasons for most deletions are absence, death, or duplication.
The final voter list drops ahead of key state elections—so if you want your vote to count, it's worth double-checking your status soon.