In Gujarat, 8 go to HC for inclusion in post-SIR voter list, 7 win

During the SIR in Gujarat, conducted between November 2025 and February 2026, the total number of voters went down from 5,08,43,436 to 4,40,30,725 – a decline of 68.12 lakh or 13.4%. Till Uttar Pradesh SIR numbers came out on Friday, putting its total deletions at 13.21%, Gujarat was far ahead of other states in the shrinking of its voter list.

The seven whose petitions regarding voter list were cleared by the Gujarat High Court include Sanjay Gadhvi, of Khokhra in Ahmedabad; Jayesh Patel of Thakkarbapanagar in Ahmedabad; Shashankkumar Mishra of Vapi; and Vikram Odedra of Porbandar. The only petition that was not successful was of Kavita Chetan Yadav, of Ahmedabad.

Gadhvi, 32, whose area falls in the Maninagar Assembly constituency that was represented by Narendra Modi when he was the Chief Minister of Gujarat, told The Indian Express that while he is a resident of Khokhra, he had spent the past two years in his native village of Mandvi in Kutch, as his mother was not keeping well.

“We lost her four months back. I received the election I-card (for Maninagar) and thus believed that my name would be there in the ward electoral rolls too,” says Gadhvi.

Giving him relief on Thursday, the Division Bench of Justices N S S Gowda and J L Odedara noted that Gadhvi had received an acknowledgment for his March 12 application seeking insertion of his name in the electoral rolls, after it did not figure in the final SIR list. The judges held that this “digital signature” was a valid acknowledgment of his application.

The court also took into consideration the fact that Gadhvi had a voter I-card for the Maninagar Assembly constituency.

The State Election Commission argued against inclusion of Gadhvi’s name in the ward voter rolls, saying that as per the Bombay Provincial Municipal Corporation (Registration of Voters) Rules, 1994, that govern the Gujarat civic polls, no voter names could be added in the final 10 days leading up to the deadline for filing of nomination papers.

However, the court set this aside, directing that Gadhvi’s name be included from the Khokhra ward, and saying that he was free to “participate in the electoral process scheduled to be held”.

Early Saturday morning, the Congress cleared Gadhvi as its candidate from Khokhra ward. A realtor, Gadhvi says his inspiration is his uncle, who fought Assembly elections in 2012.

Jayesh Patel, 38, who is on the voter list too after court intervention, is a former convenor of the Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti. Like many other leaders of the outfit that spearheaded the Patidar quota agitation, he is now with the BJP.

Originally from Botad’s Samadhiyala village, but born and brought up in Ahmedabad, Patel is a trustee of a private international school in Sanand, a real estate developer, and a member of the Shree Khodaldham Trust run by Leuva Patidars. In his family of four, including his wife and parents, only his name was not in the voter list of Thakkarbapanagar ward in Ahmedabad, Patel says.

“During SIR, I duly informed my Block Level Officer about my change of address, as I had shifted from Meghaninagar (in Ahmedabad) to Thakkarbapanagar. But I learnt that my name had been deleted. I then followed the process and submitted all the documents for a new voter card. I also got confirmation of my application via SMS,” Patel says.

Patel says he only realised his name was missing when he went to submit his application to the BJP office as he wanted to contest the coming civic polls. “After learning that my name was deleted, I approached the Collector as well as the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation, but did not get a positive response… My only lapse was that I checked my voting details online and didn’t look for my name offline,” he adds.

Patel’s case was heard by the same Bench of Justices Gowda and Odedara as Gadhvi. In its order quashing the Electoral Officer’s decision in Patel’s case, the judges said, “… the right of the citizen to participate in elections cannot be denied”, and directed the authorities to consider Patel’s name.

“It is to be borne in mind that every resident of the local self-government has a right to participate in the electoral process and the only condition is that he should be on the electoral rolls,” the court said.

With the BJP naming him as its candidate from Thakkarbapanagar ward, a delighted Patel says: “Since childhood I wanted to be in social service, and that is the reason I wanted to contest my first election from the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation.”

In the case of Vapi resident Shashankkumar Mishra, the court held that his name should be included in the electoral rolls for local body polls as it was in the rolls of February 17, 2026, for the Chharvada Assembly constituency.

Mishtra’s counsel also argued that he lived in an apartment complex in Ward No. 5 of Vapi civic body, and that all the residents living on other floors of the same building had been included in the ward electoral rolls.

The court granted his request, and on Friday, his counsel successfully pleaded for his constituency to be changed to Pardi from Chharvada.

In Vikram Odedra’s case, the Municipal Commissioner of Porbandar had accepted his application on March 30 to include his name in the electoral rolls. But, on April 5, an endorsement was issued to the petitioner stating that his name was not found in the electoral rolls of the Assembly constituency and so his name could not be included in the rolls of the Municipal Corporation.

The High Court directed that as the Commissioner had “acceded to the request of the petitioner”, a subsequent endorsement that his name was not found in the Assembly constituency list could not have been issued.

Kavita Chetan Yadav was unsuccessful in her plea to be enrolled as a voter from Ahmedabad, saying she wished to contest the coming elections, as her name was not in the electoral rolls for the Assembly constituency. With the court not inclined to entertain the petition, Yadav withdrew the same.