Prakash Raj alleges SIR aims to erase evidence of past electoral 'wrongdoing'

The actor termed the exercise a "conspiracy" and said efforts were underway to collect evidence to establish the alleged irregularities.

Actor-activist Prakash Raj on Thursday alleged that the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls was aimed not only at deleting voters' names but also at erasing evidence of alleged electoral wrongdoing in the 2024-25 elections.

Speaking to PTI in New Delhi, Raj termed the exercise a "conspiracy" and said efforts were underway to collect evidence to establish the alleged irregularities.

Raj was in the national capital to attend the first public hearing of a commission of retired Supreme Court and high court judges, which heard testimonies from people whose names were deleted from electoral rolls following the SIR exercise.

"There is some conspiracy in the elections, which are won illegally. So a lot of things are there. SIR, I think, is not just a conspiracy to remove voters. It is also to remove the old evidence of what they (the government) have done in the past since 2024-2025 elections," he said.

The commission, headed by former Supreme Court judge Justice Madan B Lokur, was constituted by the Lawyers Association for Constitution (LAFC) to examine the constitutional and statutory validity, methodology and impact of the revision exercise undertaken by the Election Commission.

Raj said the panel heard affected voters in person, took their testimonies under oath and received data-based studies prepared by teams examining the deletions.

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Describing the exercise as "flawed", he questioned the discrepancies in the electoral rolls, claiming that his name, despite being a five-time National Film Award winner, had been removed. He also cited the reported deletion of former Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud's name and names of serving chief ministers.

"I am a five-time national award winner. My name is removed. Former CJI Chandrachud's name was removed. Names of sitting chief ministers were removed. So what is the discrepancy? What are you trying to do?" he asked.

Raj said the commission would conduct further hearings before arriving at an independent assessment of the exercise.

According to the figures cited in the report, around 13 crore voters have been removed from electoral rolls across the country through the SIR process.

Delhi's draft electoral roll, published on August 31, 2026, showed that more than 47 lakh voters had been deleted from a total electorate of 1.45 crore. In Uttar Pradesh, over 2.04 crore voters were removed following the revision, with deletions concentrated in urban areas.