New Delhi, Sept. 21 -- The Election Commission's SIR exercise is a "Method Of Disenfranchising Indians" and has turned into a "Frankenstein monster", the Congress said on Monday amid outrage over 33.13 lakh notices being issued in the national capital over "discrepancies" in details in enumeration forms.

Most notices were issued for voter details not matching with the information in the last Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls in 2002.

While Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge put out a lengthy statement on X, terming the SIR flawed, party general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh also spoke out.

Responding to a critical post over the name of late economist Bibek Debroy appearing in the list of voters being issued notices for discrepancies, Ramesh said, "Actually at work here is a Method Of Disenfranchising Indians."

Ramesh posted the words "Method Of Disenfranchising Indians" vertically so the first capital letter of every word together read -- "MODI".

In another post, he pointed out that the chief electoral officer, Delhi has issued a press release on notices being sent to VIP electors and prominent individuals during the ongoing SIR.

However, the issue is not about influential persons who will find a way to have their names included, but the vast majority who will struggle to do so, the Congress leader said.

He said 5.43 crore Indians across 14 states and UTs have received such notices demanding additional documentation to prove their citizenship.

There is abundant evidence that deletions affect the most socially and economically marginalised groups, including slum dwellers, the poor and women, Ramesh said.

During the enumeration phase, names of over 6 crore voters were removed, he claimed.

The ECI must explain why after this, now an additional 5.4 crore voters are at risk of deletion, Ramesh asked.

"In Delhi, 54 per cent of voters have either been deleted or face risk of deletion. This is an absurdly high share that calls the whole voter roll into question. Other BJP states have still not released the list of voters at risk of deletion. This is an appalling lack of transparency and every state must release the list immediately," the Congress leader said.

"The CEO claims 'there is no existential crisis'," Ramesh said and added that unless voters provide adequate documentation to the satisfaction of the BLO/ERO, they can be struck off the final roll.

So they remain at risk of deletion, he added.

Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.