Sikkim Voter Rolls Show Stagnant Third-Gender Registration

Gangtok: Sikkim has exactly two third-gender voters. The state's 2026 Final Electoral Roll, released September 6, 2026, confirms this figure has not budged since the draft roll published in July. The total state electorate sits at 4,18,467 people.

Official data from the Chief Electoral Officer shows the split includes 2,12,534 men and 2,05,931 women. These two third-gender individuals represent a tiny fraction of the population. The state previously recorded three third-gender voters during the 2024 Lok Sabha and Assembly elections, when the total count reached 4,63,929. A similar count of two appeared in the January 2019 final rolls, which tracked over 4.23 lakh total voters.

National trends tell a different story. Election Commission data tracks a rise from 39,075 third-gender electors in 2019 to 48,194 in 2024. That is a 23.5 per cent jump across the country. Still, voter turnout remains an issue. The records indicate that "around 27 per cent of registered third-gender voters exercised their franchise in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections."

Sikkim remains an outlier. The stagnant registration numbers contrast sharply with the broader increase seen elsewhere in India. Officials are now facing questions about the state's representation efforts.