India Strikes 130 Million Names from Voter Rolls in Largest Disenfranchisement in Its History

India is in the grip of a political crisis after approximately 130 million names were struck from the national voter rolls in what analysts describe as the largest disenfranchisement by numbers in the country's more than seven decades as a republic. The revision exercise began last summer in one state before being expanded nationwide. The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) defended the deletions, saying the affected names belonged to people who had died, had duplicate entries, had moved residence or were otherwise untraceable. However, prominent elections specialist and BJP critic Yogendra Yadav disputed this, calling the scale and speed of the exercise unprecedented and deeply damaging to democratic integrity. Thousands of protesters gathered in New Delhi on October 12, 2026, and demonstrations spread across other cities. Former senior officials at the election commission and independent analysts said the deletions struck the biggest blow to India's vaunted electoral system since independence. Critics allege the exercise disproportionately targeted constituencies that have historically voted against the BJP, and opposition parties are calling for an emergency judicial review before upcoming state elections.