BIG update on pan-India Special Intensive Revision; EC may rollout phase 1 of SIR in THESE states from…

Special Intensive Revision: In a major on pan-India Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, the Election Commission (EC) may begin the first phase of the exercise as early as next week in over a dozen states, including those scheduled for polls next year. According to officials, the poll authority is likely to announce phase 1 of SIR middle of next week, in which as many as “10 to 15 states” would be included.

Where will SIR be conducted first?

Officials said that the SIR exercise is likely to be conducted in over a dozen states, including Assam, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Kerala and West Bengal, which are bound for assembly polls in 2026, PTI reported.

However, the apex poll panel will not hold the electoral roll cleanup exercise in states where local body elections are taking place or are due, as the grassroots poll machinery is busy with it and may not be able to focus on SIR, the report said, citing officials in know of the matter, adding that the SIR exercise in these states will be held in later phases.

Recently, the Commission completed the SIR exercise in poll-bound Bihar and published the final list of nearly 7.42 crore voters in the state on September 30.

EC directs CEOs to prepare for SIR

Notably, the Commission has already held two conferences with state chief electoral officers (CEOs) to firm up the SIR rollout roadmap. and several CEOs have already put the voter lists published after their last SIR on their websites.

Earlier, at a conference held in national capital New Delhi, top EC officials had directed state chief electoral officers (CEOs) to gear up for a pan-India SIR roll out in the next 10 to 15 days, setting a September 30 deadline for the CEOs to prepare for the voter roll cleanup exercise, according to PTI.

The website of the Delhi CEO has the 2008 voter list when the last intensive revision took place in the national capital, while Uttarakhand has published the 2006 electoral roll details, when the last SIR was conducted in that state.

The last SIR in states will serve as the cut-off date, just as the 2003 voter list of Bihar was used by the EC for intensive revision, officials said

Why EC is conducting a pan-India SIR?

Notably, the previous SIR in most states was conducted between 2002 and 2004, and majority of states and Union Territories have nearly completed mapping of current electors with the voters according to the last SIR, PTI reported.

The Election Commission recently published the final voter list of nearly 7.42 crore electors in Bihar after conducting a month-long SIR exercise in the poll-bound state. The poll panel has asserted that weeding out illegal migrants from the voter list was the primary goal of the Bihar SIR exercise.

(With PTI inputs)

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