Millions are struck off India's voter rolls in largest disenfranchisement in history

Kanchan and her son sit on his bed, next to Kamal, a relative, in the Muslim-majority neighborhood Bela Slum in New Delhi, India, October 13, 2026. Elke Scholiers for NPR hide caption Elke Scholiers for NPR NEW DELHI — Like many Indians, Kanchan has one name and lives in hardscrabble quarters. Her home is built of tin and a tarp, constructed under a flyover in the capital New Delhi. And like many on the margins, Kanchan was proud of her right to vote — a rare equalizer in unequal India. "It's important, because it shows we are citizens," Kanchan said on a recent October day, sitting on a plastic chair as vehicles trundled overhead. But a few weeks ago, Kanchan said about 500 adults were deleted from their voter roll in this community, which resides around a bridge. They found out through another resident who is allowed to examine the voter rolls as a representative of a political party. They were among an estimated 130 million names that were deleted during a revision of voter rolls that began last year in June. The number is an estimate by Yogendra Yadav, an elections specialist and prominent critic of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata...