Three United Nations special rapporteurs have formally asked India to clarify a large-scale voter-deletion exercise that stripped roughly 52 million names from electoral rolls across 12 states and union territories ahead of recent state elections. In a communication dated 1 May 2026, the independent experts — covering minority issues, freedom of expression, and freedom of religion — warned that the purge, launched by India's Election Commission in November 2025 under a "Special Intensive Revision" process, disproportionately affected Muslim citizens; in West Bengal's Nandigram constituency alone, an alleged 95 percent of deleted voters were Muslim despite the community making up just 25 percent of local electors. The rapporteurs also criticised government rhetoric framing the deletions as targeting "illegal Bangladeshi immigrants," warning it conflates Muslim citizens with foreign nationals and may violate India's obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which New Delhi ratified in 1979.