SIR Finds Around 1,600 Suspected Foreigners In Six States

The Election Commission of India cited foreign illegal immigrants as one reason for Bihar’s special intensive revision on June 24, 2025. But the number of suspected foreign nationals detected so far in states where the exercise was completed or under way remains small against both the electorate and the deletions from the rolls.

Suspected foreign nationals identified in at least six states total roughly 1,600. Those six states together have an electorate of 98.6 million.

In its June 24, 2025 press note announcing the Bihar exercise, the ECI said: “Various reasons such as rapid urbanisation, frequent migration, young citizens becoming eligible to vote, non-reporting of deaths and inclusion of the names of foreign illegal immigrants have necessitated the conduct of an intensive revision so as to ensure integrity and preparation of error-free electoral rolls,” it said in a press note.

Karnataka Detection Figures

Karnataka reported 716 foreign nationals for removal.

The state’s special intensive revision deleted 9.97 million names in the final rolls. Authorities identified 716 foreign nationals for removal in Karnataka, including 545 Nepalese citizens in Bengaluru North, according to an official from the state Chief Electoral Officer’s office.

Karnataka Chief Electoral Officer V Anbukkumar also confirmed the detections. “Yes, we have detected foreigners. Their number is definitely less than 1,000,” he told reporters.

District-level figures show how those cases were spread. Dakshina Kannada recorded 40 foreign nationals, including 17 from Nepal, six each from Australia and the United States, five from Canada, two from Britain and one each from the Netherlands, South Africa, Ireland and Norway.

Uttara Kannada recorded 22 detections involving citizens of Nepal, Pakistan, the United States and Bangladesh. Udupi found 47 foreign nationals from countries including Nepal, the United States, Britain, France and Canada.

Verification issues also came up during the exercise. “Some people who possessed voter identity cards could not provide details of other documents, including school certificates and property records, during verification,” said an officer familiar with the exercise.

Other State Findings

Six states gave a count of suspected foreigners, four said they did not maintain the data, and Odisha said it found such cases but did not record a figure, according to the Hindustan Times.

“We did find suspected foreign nationals on the rolls but didn’t keep any figures,” an Odisha state official said.

The ECI claimed that it had not asked states to collect such data separately. “States were not asked to collect this data separately. We also don’t have combined or state-wise data on this. If any such cases came up, they were placed under the ‘Others’ category in ASDDO. But ECI has not asked them to provide these details,” a senior ECI official said.

Several states reported that they did not maintain a separate record of such detections. Punjab Chief Electoral Officer Anindita Mitra said, “We only categorised electors under the ASDD categories. This data was not collected.”

Uttarakhand Chief Electoral Officer BVRC Purushottam questioned whether election machinery could gather such figures at all. “How could we collect this data? This is beyond the scope of election officials,” he said.

Delhi’s CEO office also reported no state-level count. “The CEO office hasn’t received any such input from DEOs. At this stage, we don’t have this data,” a senior official at the office said. Telangana was also among the states whose officials said they did not maintain this data.

Jharkhand To Mizoram

Officials there identified three foreign nationals, all from Afghanistan. The state’s draft rolls were published on August 5, and final rolls are scheduled on November 30. The draft roll had 22.1 million names, down by roughly 4.36 million from the pre-SIR roll of 26.46 million.

Meghalaya found two men of Nepalese origin on the rolls. Both were married to Indian women. State Chief Electoral Officer BDR Tiwari said they were found at Mawsynram in East Khasi Hills. “We found two Nepalese men on the rolls. They were immediately removed and the matter has been referred to the home department,” said Tiwari.

The state’s final roll, published on October 26, had 2.18 million names after 165,682 names were dropped. Kerala, meanwhile, detected around 500 people who held foreign citizenship but were still on the rolls, according to a senior state CEO office official. Kerala’s final roll, published on February 21, had 26.95 million names after 897,211 names were removed.

Goa detected 419 suspected foreign passport holders, according to state Chief Electoral Officer Sanjay Goel. Its final roll, also published on February 21, had 1.06 million names after 127,468 names were dropped.

Mizoram reported no such cases. The state’s final roll, published on September 7, had 835,000 names after 39,000 names were dropped. Chief Electoral Officer Garima Gupta said the draft roll showed no evidence of foreign nationals being enrolled.