Kamta Prasad has been going from one government office to another in Delhi, trying to prove he is not dead. The 53-year-old tailor is among 130 million people removed from India’s electoral rolls under a voter list review.
The process has sparked mass protests and become the biggest challenge yet to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government.
The Special Intensive Revision has removed names for reasons ranging from “logical discrepancies” to people being recorded as dead.
Prasad, one of 4.2 million Delhi voters struck off, has had to give up his daily wage of 250 rupees, which supports his family of four, to fix the error.
“I panicked when I heard about it,” he said. “Since then I’ve been going everywhere to prove that I’m alive.”
Opposition parties and youth groups have staged near-daily protests in New Delhi and elsewhere, which police have met with force.
They accuse Election Commission chief Gyanesh Kumar of manipulating the review to benefit Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party. Both the commission and the BJP deny this.
The Election Commission says it is removing duplicate, dead, relocated and otherwise ineligible voters, and that anyone left off by mistake can file a claim and appeal before the rolls are finalised.
For many, that means repeated visits to election offices, hearings and rounds of appeals that can take weeks or months.
“I told them I voted in the last assembly and general elections and have been voting for 35 years, but nobody listens,” Prasad said.
After weeks of protests, the commission ordered fresh checks in some states, including Delhi. Prasad says officials have assured him his name will be restored.
Others have been told to register again as new voters instead.
For poorer families, the fears go beyond voting. Delhi resident Mamta, 39, said she worries that if her family’s names aren’t restored, they could lose access to subsidised food rations and other welfare benefits.
India’s Election Commission did not respond to Reuters’ request for comment.
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