Electoral offices have accurate data on the number of names deleted from the voter list. However, when digital records were sought for these deletions, many government offices responded with the same, curt response: “No records were maintained.” Currently, a heated debate is raging over the functioning of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and the Election Commission as a whole regarding the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the voter list. Amidst this atmosphere, a former Indore councilor sought information under the Right to Information (RTI), the reverberations of which have now reached the Madhya Pradesh High Court. This entire matter has raised a direct and very prickly question: If a voter’s name was deleted through a digital system, where did the digital record of that major decision disappear? This entire matter pertains to the Indore district between January 5, 2022, and October 15, 2022. During this period, the names of 136,552 voters were removed from the district’s voter list. Citing this data, detailed information was sought through an RTI. However, in response, election offices in several assembly constituencies clearly stated that they do not maintain or preserve any such digital records related to the Garuda App and ERO Net.
The legal battle of former Indore councilor Dilip Kaushal, who is engaged in the campaign to obtain this complete information, has now reached the Madhya Pradesh High Court. In his order dated September 17, 2026, High Court Justice Sandeep N. Bhatt directed the State Information Commission to decide Dilip Kaushal’s pending second appeal as soon as possible, based on the law and available documents. The court has clearly set a 45-day deadline for this. This period will be counted from the date of receipt of a certified copy of the order. The court also stated that whatever decision is reached, the applicant should be informed directly. This appeal by the former councilor has been pending with the State Information Commission since January 30, 2026. However, the High Court has not expressed any personal opinion on the merits of the case; the court’s emphasis is only on delivering a legal decision within the stipulated time.
It is important to clearly understand that this matter concerns deletions from the voter list in 2022, not the current SIR. Nevertheless, it raises the same fundamental question regarding transparency in the electoral process: If any changes or alterations are made to the voter list, how will the official documents behind it reach ordinary citizens? The matter wasn’t limited to this; Kaushal also requested the entire file containing the contracts (agreements) of the private or contracting companies involved in this process, their work orders, data backup arrangements, and official correspondence regarding this matter. Following this, the District Election Office forwarded this application to the officials of the various assembly constituencies on May 27, 2025, with written responses beginning to arrive in June.
When the responses came from the assembly constituency offices, they were quite shocking. The Depalpur Election Office categorically stated that it had not maintained any such digital records related to ERO Net or the BLO’s Garuda App.
The Indore-3 office also argued that the records were not maintained due to the lack of a directive from the Commission.
The Indore-4 Election Office’s response was slightly different from the other offices. This office argued that the entire process of deleting voters’ names from the Garuda App and ERO Net was part of their daily routine work, in accordance with Election Commission guidelines. However, he also made it clear that the videos, DVDs, or other digital records requested in this regard have not been preserved in his Assembly office.
The figures revealed alongside these government responses further increase the seriousness of the matter. According to the information provided in the RTI application, 28,391 names were deleted in the Indore-4 Assembly constituency and 28,091 in Indore-5. If only these two Assembly constituencies are combined, the number reaches 56,482.
When the 21,346 names deleted from the Rau Assembly constituency are added, the figure rises to 77,828. This means that of the 1.36 lakh names deleted across the district, approximately 57% were removed from these three Assembly constituencies alone.
In the remaining constituencies, 19,983 names were deleted in Indore-2, 12,102 in Indore-1, and 8,107 in Indore-3. In the Sanwer assembly constituency, 8,531 names were deleted, and in Depalpur, 2,214 in Depalpur. When the data from these eight assembly constituencies is combined, the total number reaches 128,765.
This RTI application, seeking digital records, bounced from office to office. When sharp questions were raised regarding company contracts, agreements, and data backups, most offices shrugged off the matter, claiming that the information did not pertain to their jurisdiction. The Indore-4 office simply redirected all questions back to the District Election Office, stating that it was their responsibility. It’s worth noting that this application was originally sent from the District Election Office to the lower assembly constituencies. In this way, the answers of the local offices were received on paper, but the digital records and technical evidence which were needed were not found.
The whereabouts of the deletion were not known in any of the replies.After receiving vague responses from the Indore offices, Dilip Kaushal sent a formal complaint on July 31, 2025, directly to the Chief Election Commissioner of India, Gyanesh Kumar, Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, as well as the Chief Electoral Officer of Madhya Pradesh. Through this complaint, he did not limit the scope of the issue to Indore alone, but extended it to all 230 assembly seats across Madhya Pradesh. He questioned the state’s record-keeping system for deletions from voter lists, and whether similar violations of the rules were observed everywhere.
Considering the political backdrop, in the 2023 Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections, the BJP won a landslide victory, winning 163 of the state’s 230 seats, while the Congress was reduced to just 66. In Indore district, BJP candidates won all nine seats. However, the Madhya Pradesh High Court has not questioned these election results in its latest order. The court’s sole intervention is limited to deciding pending RTI appeals within 45 days, within the legal framework. Meanwhile, Dilip Kaushal is attempting to obtain documents that clearly explain the process and technical evidence used to remove the names of over 1.25 lakh voters from the 2022 electoral rolls.