Congress accused the Election Commission of turning the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls into a mass purge of voters. A party communications chief coined the phrase Shah Instigated Removal, tying the exercise to the Home Minister and calling it an assault on the Constitution. The party stated that Phase 1 and Phase 2 deleted about 7.8 crore names, while Phase 3 showed 6.18 crore deletions from twelve states and two UTs, with an additional 5.43 crore voters receiving notices for extra documents.
Congress claimed the deletions fall disproportionately on economically and socially disadvantaged groups, with more women than men struck off in major states. The party argued the process shifts the burden onto citizens to produce documents many were never issued. Meanwhile, the Election Commission maintains that the revision cleans ineligible and duplicate entries while adding eligible voters, rejecting opposition warnings that the process could be weaponised.