New Delhi: Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi Monday visited the jhuggi-jhopri (JJ) cluster on Delhi’s Yamuna floodplains, where the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) resulted in deletion of all voters except one. The cluster is part of Bela Estate area in the Chandni Chowk Assembly constituency.
Bela Estate area falls under “part number 38”, referred to as ‘Lal Quila Yamuna Bridge’ in the draft electoral roll. Published in August, the draft roll for this polling station only had the name of Mahant Kanchan Giri, son of ‘Chela Mahant Muneshwar Giri’ and mahant of Parmartham Hanuman Mandir on Bela Road, near Vijay Ghat.
Each constituency has voters divided into different “parts” in the electoral roll and vote at a polling station set up for that “part” or polling area.
Sharing a video of his interaction with jhuggi-jhopri residents excluded from the draft roll, Rahul Gandhi wrote on X: “These people have been living here for decades. They have already voted in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and the 2025 Delhi elections. In 2023, their homes were demolished—but they didn’t go anywhere, they’re still right here.”
The Congress leader added, “This isn’t SIR—this is a method of vote theft. From those who already have the least, their only power is being snatched away. Gyanesh Kumar will go. But the system that made him do this will also have to answer.”
यमुना किनारे बेला एस्टेट में 728 लोग रहते हैं। SIR के बाद वोटर लिस्ट में सिर्फ़ एक नाम बचा – बाकी 727 नाम काट दिए गए।
ये लोग दशकों से यहाँ रह रहे हैं। 2024 के लोकसभा चुनाव और 2025 के दिल्ली चुनावों में वोट डाल चुके हैं। 2023 में इनके घर तोड़ दिए गए थे – पर ये कहीं नहीं गए, यहीं… pic.twitter.com/27cJZjqJg6
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) September 28, 2026
Recalling the struggles of residents before the draft roll was published in August, Bela Estate resident Kamal Lal told ThePrint, “I was born here. My grandfather came here in 1913, and my father is around 70-years-old now. I was born in 1986. We have been doing agriculture there…We were told that we are encroachers, but we still submitted more than 500 enrolment forms.”
“They didn’t give us a ‘receiving’ or acknowledgement of the forms but I had taken photo copies of all the forms before we submitted them,” said Kamal Lal, who has also been helping fellow residents with their enrolment forms. After concerns were raised over mass deletion of voters in the polling station, the Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) of the Chandni Chowk constituency organised special camps in the area on 18 and 20 September.
A total of 496 Form-6, for enrolment of new voters, were filed as a result.
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‘Have voted since Indira’s time’
Rameshwari, a 66-year-old ThePrint met in Bela Estate, was quick to show the identity card issued to her by the ECI, along with her EPIC number. “I don’t even remember when I moved here. I got married here,” she said, standing beside her jhuggi.
In the ASDD (Absent, Shifted, Dead, and Duplicate) list for the polling station, Rameshwari is listed as “permanently shifted”.
Chandri, a 65-year-old resident of Bela Estate, also did not waste any time in flashing her identity documents. She, too, is marked as “permanently shifted” in the ASDD list.
This slum cluster on the western bank of the Yamuna has faced more than a dozen demolition drives since the 2000s, according to Land Conflict Watch. Situated near Geeta Colony bridge, it also faced demolitions by Delhi Development Authority (DDA) in 2023.
However, each time residents would reclaim the land and set up their jhuggis afresh.
“We have often seen bulldozers on our houses, but we’ve not had any demolitions in the past 1.5-2 years. We’ve voted in every election in the past,” said Kamal Lal.
Another Bela Estate resident, 84-year-old Ram Charan, said he worked in the sabzi mandi all his life. “I have been here since I was a child. I got my children married here. I have voted since Indira Gandhi’s time,” he told ThePrint, clutching more than 500 enumeration forms residents had filled during the enumeration phase of the SIR exercise, before the draft list was published.
Both Ram Charan and Kamal Lal were listed as “permanently shifted” in the ASDD list released by the CEO, Delhi, and have now submitted their Form 6 for registration as new voters.
909 to 729 to 1
The issue of deletion of a large number of voters from polling station number 38 in Chandni Chowk Assembly constituency was first raised during a press conference organised by citizens collective ‘Voter Adhikar Manch’ earlier this month.
It was alleged that voters were deleted from the electoral roll while they continued to stay in jhuggis under the Geeta Colony bridge.
It was reported in the media that the Bela Estate area was being reclaimed for Asita West, as one of the 10 parts of the proposed riverfront project.
In January 2025, right after a routine Special Summary Revision exercise conducted in the run-up to the Delhi elections, this polling station, then numbered 33 in the Chandni Chowk Assembly constituency, had 909 voters. But by August 2026, the number had fallen to 729.
Minutes of the meeting of Booth Level Agents (BLAs) and Booth Level Officers (BLOs) for this polling station, held on 11 August, 2026, show that a total of 729 electors remained on the electoral roll prior to the start of the SIR exercise.
The minutes said that only one enumeration form was collected during house-to-house visits. The minutes also show that the meeting was attended by a single BLA, affiliated with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and BLO Garima Arya.
The minutes then say that, based on house-to-house visits, a list of uncollectable enumeration forms was prepared as per instructions of the ECI. The breakup shared during these minutes said that there was one elector marked as absent, 632 marked as shifted, 42 marked dead, 10 marked as duplicate and 43 in the ‘others’ category, which includes those who refused to sign the enumeration form or their house was demolished.
However, the ASDD (absent, shifted, dead and duplicate) voter list officially uploaded for this polling station mentions only 333 voters, of which 110 were marked ‘permanently shifted’, 208 were marked ‘untraceable/absent’, and 14 were marked as dead.
ERO responses
In response to the concerns, office of the ERO of Chandni Chowk issued a press note on 10 September, saying that in the case of Bela Estate, the electoral roll pertaining to erstwhile station 33 showed that in most cases, the address of the electors was recorded as “Agriculture”, while house numbers were recorded only in respect of a few electors.
The press note said that the area covered by this part was situated on the western bank of the river Yamuna, and that a substantial number of electors residing in the area were engaged in agricultural activities in and around the Yamuna Bank area.
“The agricultural activities/illegal cultivation in the said area were discontinued in 2021, and the dwelling units existing in the area were demolished in 2022-23. As a result, the physical and residential status of the area has undergone substantial changes since the preparation of the earlier electoral records,” it then asserted.
The press note claimed that due to the demolition of the dwelling units, the electors there were no longer residing at the registered address as mentioned in the electoral roll.
“Thus their status as ‘Ordinary Resident’ as per section 20(7) of the RP Act, 1970 read with Instruction in Manual of ER is changed. As such, as per the extant instructions, BLO has correctly placed these electors in the ASDD List,” it added, pointing out that electors may file Form 6 for registration of new voters, during the claims and objections period.
In another press note issued on 18 September, the ERO said that some of the electors in the area had shifted to temporary tarpaulin tents beneath the Geeta Colony Bridge.
It said that special camps were organised on 18 and 20 September at Bela Estate, and a total of 496 Form-6 were received.
There are a total of 132 polling stations under the Chandni Chowk Assembly constituency. The number and name of settlements that fall under polling station number 38, earlier referred to as polling station 33, remained the same in 2026 as in 2025: Shiv Mandir, Bagichi, Tejpal, Darya Ganj and JJ Bela Estate (Vijay Ghat).
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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