New Delhi: Gaytri Devi, a resident of Delhi’s Chandni Chowk assembly constituency, has been a booth level agent (BLA) with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for over three decades, helping the party in identifying voters in the area and ensuring they are part of electoral rolls before elections. Yet when the draft list of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) was published on August 31, the 74-year-old found herself excluded along with every other member of her booth, barring one elector. The Lal Quila Yamuna Bridge polling booth now has only one elector on the draft list, against the total 729 who were there prior to the SIR.Gaytri Devi, a resident of Delhi’s Chandni Chowk assembly constituency, has been a booth level agent (BLA) with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for over three decades. Her name is missing from the draft electoral roll. Photo: Special Arrangement.According to records uploaded by the Delhi chief electoral officer, minutes of the meeting held by the assistant electoral registration officer (AERO) on the uncollectable enumeration forms with BLAs on August 11 show that while a total of 729 electors existed prior to the SIR in part 33 of Chandni Chowk assembly constituency, following the exercise only one elector made it to the draft list. While the minutes of the meeting also say that two BLAs of political parties attended the meeting, the document only bears the signature of the BLA from the BJP.The document further lists that of the total 729 electors, one was absent, 632 had shifted, 42 were dead and ten were duplicate. Another 43 electors have been categorised as ‘Others (refused to sign EF, demolished etc)’.Gaytri Devi, who was not working as BLA during the SIR process, is on number five on the draft roll ASDD (Absent, Shifted, Duplicate or Deceased) list, has been marked as permanently shifted, even though she has lived in the area for decades and even voted in the 2025 Delhi elections when she worked as a BLA for the BJP. Also read: Delhi SIR: Who Are the 47.56 Lakh People Knocked Out From the Draft Roll?“I have lived my entire life here, I have all documents from Aadhaar, ration card, school leaving certificate, land documents. My parents were freedom fighters and my mother received freedom fighters’ pension during the Indira Gandhi government, I even have those papers. Yet now I have been removed. Will they call us ghuspaithiya now?” asked Gaytri Devi while speaking to The Wire.Chandni Chowk AERO Sunil Kumar said that while only one elector in the booth has found place in the draft list, the area saw demolitions in 2023, and if residents can show proof of permanent residence they will be brought back on the rolls.“If they show any document of permanent residence, whether it is rent agreement, electricity or water bills, they can fill Form 6 and find a place in the final list. This is only the draft list,” Kumar told The Wire.Kamal Lal, 39, a resident of JJ Bela Estate Vijay Ghat, was also a part of the 2025 electoral roll but has been marked ‘permanently shifted’. Lal told The Wire that he had assisted the BLO who came to his area in filling out over 500 forms, as he is educated. Yet along with 727 others, he has been excluded in the draft list. “I have shown voter lists from 1961, 1975, 2002 and 2025 from JJ Bela Estate. We filled the SIR forms even with the details of our elders who were on the 2002 rolls. Yet our names have been excluded from the draft list because we were told there was a demolition in the area in 2023,” said Lal.The exclusions in the polling booth have put the spotlight on how lack of documentation or proof of permanent residency due to demolitions have left out the poor in the SIR.On September 8, CEO Delhi released an email on X that it had sent as a response to the Voter Adhikar Manch dated September 2 and said that electors of demolished colonies can apply for inclusion using Form 8.“As regards to electors of demolished colonies is concerned, it is informed that as per existing instructions of the Commission enumeration forms have to be distributed to the electors found residing at the address of the electors registered in the electoral rolls. As per section 19 of the RP Act, 1950, one of the primary conditions of eligibility for inclusion of name in the electoral roll is to be ordinary resident of the constituency. In case a person has ceased to be ordinary resident of the constituency for any reason, he/she may apply for shifting of address in Form 8,” the email said.However in the same email, Deputy CEO Prashant Kumar Prasad said that if any elector whose name does not appear in the draft list for “reason shifted or otherwise, he/she has to apply for registration in the electoral roll during the period of claims and objections in Form 6 along with declaration and supporting documents” of the SIR.“While proof of residence is required under the SIR, many of these people are living in makeshift shacks. The Election Commission needs to find a solution to include them as they have voted in 2025 as well. If a solution is not found and they are not included, they will lose their right to vote,” said transparency activist Anjali Bhardwaj.Also read: 11 Lakh Voters Removed Before Delhi SIR Began, Deletions in 68 of 70 Seats Exceed 2025 Winning Margin: ReportBhardwaj, along with members of the Voter Adhikar Manch, on Tuesday released a report on the SIR in Delhi which had analysed data from the Delhi CEO and found 11 lakh voters were removed from the rolls in Delhi even before the SIR started.In October, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar had said that those who do not have their homes or have not been given house numbers, they are designated numbers of neighbouring homes or given the number zero.“Those who do not have their own homes or those who have not been allotted home numbers by panchayat or municipal authorities, they are either given a number of any neighbouring house or are given the number zero,” he said.The Lal Quila Yamuna Bridge polling booth too had 909 registered voters according to the special summary revision conducted in January 2025. The minutes of the meeting of the AERO with the BLA records in August, however, show that the total number of voters prior to the SIR was 729. Also read: SIR in Delhi: As One-Third of the Voters Left Out, Field Notes from a Haywire ProcessThe Wire has sent a questionnaire to CEO Delhi, this report will be updated when a response is received.Following the SIR, the draft roll shows that the number of registered voters in Delhi has come down from 1,45,10,299 to 97,53,577, with over 47 lakh names excluded and the rolls shrinking by 33% – amounting to nearly a third of the city’s electorate. While figures are likely to change in the final list, Delhi has recorded the highest rate of exclusion in the third phase of SIR draft lists, despite holding elections in 2025. The highest deletions in the draft list have been recorded in states where elections were held in the last three years. The Wire has earlier reported that the 47.56 lakh names deleted from the list in Delhi are predominantly working-age men in transient or informal housing, disproportionately migrant workers from the Poorvanchal region, and, on every demographic marker available, blue-collar job seekers rather than the settled middle class. For our full coverage on the SIR and the issues it has brought to citizens, click here.