Kamta Prasad, a 53-year-old tailor from Delhi, is currently locked in an exhausting bureaucratic battle to prove a simple yet surreal fact: he is still alive. Prasad is just one of the 130 million citizens recently struck from India’s electoral rolls during a massive revision process that has ignited widespread outrage and political tension across the country. Many, like Prasad, discovered they had been inexplicably flagged as "deceased" or "shifted," forcing them to sacrifice their daily wages and navigate a labyrinthine system of government offices just to reclaim their basic right to vote.

The mass deletions have sparked significant unrest, with opposition parties and advocacy groups accusing election officials of manipulating voter data to favor the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party—a claim both the government and the Election Commission vehemently deny. While the Commission maintains that these removals are necessary to eliminate duplicate or ineligible entries, the process has disproportionately impacted vulnerable populations. For those living in poverty, the loss of voting status is more than a civic grievance; many fear that being removed from the rolls could jeopardize their access to vital government welfare schemes and subsidized rations, leaving them caught in a frustrating cycle of appeals and endless paperwork.