In clean-up of voter lists, why not use Aadhaar as disinfectant?

Why in the News

A comparison of adults in the Aadhaar database with the electoral rolls published after the Election Commission of India’s (ECI) Special Intensive Revision (SIR) finds about 9 crore adults missing from the rolls of 14 States. Neither voter apathy nor migration explains the gap. This strengthens the case for using Aadhaar to clean the rolls.

Why compare Aadhaar with the electoral rolls?

1. Aadhaar and roll comparison: It sets a State’s adults (18+ years) enrolled in Aadhaar against the voters on its post-SIR roll. The difference is the adults missing from the roll.
2. Why Aadhaar is the yardstick: Aadhaar is a live register of real people, enrolled with fingerprints and iris scans. It is biometrically de-duplicated, so no one can be registered twice.
3. Weaker benchmarks so far: Earlier arguments relied on outdated Census 2011 counts or on the government’s Technical Group projections, which are only estimates.
4. The takeaway: A biometric register of real adults gives a firmer yardstick for judging how many eligible voters a revision has left out.

What does the comparison show?

1. Uttar Pradesh adults: Aadhaar records 16.3 crore adults in Uttar Pradesh (UP). Deaths, emigrants and foreign citizens are a tiny fraction, so roughly 16 crore are entitled to vote.
2. Uttar Pradesh roll: Only 13.4 crore people are on UP’s post-SIR roll, so a large gap remains even after allowing for every exception.
3. Fourteen States: It covers Uttar Pradesh, Bengal, Bihar, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Odisha, Keralam, Chhattisgarh, Punjab, Uttarakhand and Goa, on official Aadhaar and ECI data.
4. Wide variation: The missing share runs from 21% in Goa to 7% in Odisha and Tamil Nadu.

Apathy, migration or exclusion: what explains the gap?

1. Two readings: Either the SIR deliberately excluded targeted voters, or adults simply did not register because voting is not compulsory in India.
2. Apathy test: Voter apathy should be roughly similar in every State. The missing share varies threefold, so apathy cannot explain it.
3. Migration test: If migration explained the gap, receiving States such as Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Gujarat would show more voters than Aadhaar adults. None does.
4. Bihar: Bihar, the largest labour exporter, sits near the bottom of the table.
5. Poll-bound States: Goa, Punjab, Uttarakhand and UP have the largest gaps. All four vote in early 2027, when an election should raise registration.

Why not use Aadhaar to clean the rolls?

1. Record against ghost beneficiaries: The Union government says Aadhaar-enabled direct benefit transfers saved Rs 5 lakh crore by weeding out ghost, duplicate and fake beneficiaries.
2. The foreigner objection: Foreign citizens can hold Aadhaar, so not every holder is a voter. This is no bar, because every voter is an Aadhaar holder.
3. Abandoned linking plan: In March 2025 the ECI announced it would link voter IDs with Aadhaar, with Opposition support. Three months later it announced the SIR instead.

Challenges

1. Identity is not eligibility: An Aadhaar match shows a real adult, not a citizen entitled to vote.
2. Cause unproven: The data shows a gap but cannot by itself show whether exclusion or non-registration produced it.
3. Duplicates on the rolls: The rolls lack a biometric check. Eg. One Brazilian model’s photo appeared against 22 voters in Haryana.

Way Forward

1. State-wise reconciliation: The ECI should publish post-SIR roll counts against Aadhaar adult counts and explain large gaps.
2. Revive voter ID linking: Take up the shelved voter ID and Aadhaar linking plan to remove duplicate and ghost entries.
3. Targeted enrolment drives: Run enrolment drives in the States with the largest gaps before their next polls.

Conclusion

Aadhaar gives the rolls an outside benchmark, and that benchmark shows a gap that neither apathy nor migration explains on its own. Whether the ECI accounts for the missing adults before the next State polls will decide how far the revised rolls are trusted.

About Electoral Roll Revision

1. Legal basis: The ECI prepares electoral rolls under Article 324 of the Constitution and Section 21 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950.
2. Types of revision: Summary revision is the routine pre-election update. An SIR is a time-bound, house-to-house re-enumeration. Every voter fills a fresh form.
3. Documents in the SIR: The June 2025 SIR order prescribed 11 documents, and Aadhaar alone is not enough.

Key numbers

1. UP gap after exceptions: 2.5 to 3 crore voters, or 15% to 18% of UP’s adults.
2. Coverage of the 14 States: 70% of all of India’s adults.
3. Punjab and Uttarakhand: 19% of adults missing from the rolls.

Matching Previous Year Question

“[2026, GS2, 10 marks] Is the right to vote a fundamental right? Discuss the position of the Election Commission of India while undertaking the revision of electoral rolls. Can it also examine the question of citizenship of voters?”