New Delhi, Oct. 29 -- When the Election Commission of India (ECI) announced the special intensive revision in Bihar last year, it mentioned the "inclusion of the names of foreign illegal immigrants" as one of the motivations for the exercise.

Yet, in at least six states where SIR was completed or is ongoing, the number of suspected foreign nationals - roughly around 1,600 at least - detected till now is minuscule compared to the electorate and the scale of deletions, HT has found. In these states, the size of the electorate is 98.6 million.

In Karnataka, where SIR has deleted 9.97 million names in the final rolls, the authorities identified 716 foreign nationals for removal, including 545 Nepalese citizens in Bengaluru North, said an of...