Indian Rights Advocates Fear LGBT Voters Could Be Removed From Electoral Rolls
Indian LGBT rights advocates warn that a large-scale review of electoral rolls could leave transgender people and other members of the community unregistered, particularly those estranged from their families. Washington Blade reported these concerns on October 30, 2026. They involve difficulties proving identity and relatives’ details; the article provides no nationwide data that would establish the proportion of LGBT voters removed.
The Special Intensive Revision (SIR) is conducted by the Election Commission of India, an independent constitutional body. It began in Bihar in 2025 before expanding to other regions. In its October 29 report, Human Rights Watch said more than 130 million names had been removed overall. The organization considers the process arbitrary and opaque and calls for it to be scrapped. That figure covers all groups of voters and does not show how many LGBT people lost their registration.
As Scroll described, verification involves mapping a voter to an older roll — in some states from 2002 — or to relatives’ entries. If that connection cannot be established, additional documents may be required. People rejected by their families may struggle to obtain birth certificates and school records. After a change of name or gender marker, details in older and newer records may also differ.
In the southern state of Tamil Nadu, The New Indian Express reported on March 23, citing commission data, that the number of electors in the “third gender” category had fallen from 9,464 to 7,617 after SIR, a decrease of 1,847. These figures concern a particular stage of the review, rather than the position at the end of October. They also do not cover all transgender voters: some are registered as men or women. The figures alone cannot establish the reason for each removal.
In Karnataka, the My Vote, My Right coalition surveyed 74 transgender and intersex people. According to Bangalore Mirror’s June 13 report, none of the respondents could identify a polling booth using the 2002 roll. Participants described lost documents and being unable to approach relatives after leaving their families. The coalition warned of the risk of eligible citizens being excluded. The findings apply to participants in this small survey.
Indian LGBT rights advocate Ankit Bhuptani told Washington Blade that government-issued transgender identity documents should be explicitly listed among those accepted for verification. He also called for data on removals in the “third gender” category to be published by reason: death, relocation, duplicate entries, absence from an address or document mismatches. In his view, this would help identify errors before polling day.
The commission’s official position is set out in the Law and Justice Ministry’s July 25 response to Parliament: the review is intended to remove deceased voters’ entries, duplicates and other ineligible entries while retaining every eligible voter’s registration. The ministry says deletions follow verification and that citizens have a period for claims and objections, as well as the right to appeal. Its stated safeguards include repeat visits to addresses and participation by political party representatives.
In a September 24 statement, Delhi’s electoral office said it had held outreach registration camps the previous day for homeless people, transgender people and sex workers. Staff helped people complete applications for inclusion and collected registration and correction forms. The camps operated at night shelters and other locations used by these groups.
