New Delhi: Soon after the Election Commission on Monday announced holding Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls in 12 states, the Congress questioned the exercise, and said the poll body’s intentions and credibility were under suspicion as neither the voters nor the opposition were satisfied with it.
In a video message posted on X, Congress’ media and publicity head Pawan Khera said, “We have not yet received answers to the questions related to the SIR conducted in Bihar so far. The situation was such that the Supreme Court had to step in several times to rectify the SIR in Bihar.
“The intentions of the Election Commission and the BJP, which has made the EC its puppet, regarding Bihar’s SIR have already come to light before the entire country.
“Whenever SIR happens, Election Commission employees go to every house, add new voters, and delete those who need to be deleted.”
But not even a singe voter has been added in Bihar, whereas 65 lakh votes have been deleted as part of the SIR exercise, which raises several questions, Khera said.
Now they (EC) are repeating the exercise in 12 states, he said.
The Congress leader said that following the revelation of ‘vote theft’ in the Aland Assembly constituency in Karnataka by Rahul Gandhi, the SIT has said that a centralised operation was being carried out to strike names from the voter list.
“We will come to know about the details of this after the SIT probe is complete in Karnataka,” he said.
“Amid all this, conducting the SIR by such an Election Commission whose credibility and intention are under suspicion does not seem right. Clearly, neither the people, nor the opposition or the voters are satisfied,” Khera alleged in the video message.
The Election Commission will conduct Phase-2 of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in 12 states and Union territories, Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar announced on Monday.
The states and UTs are — Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Puducherry, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.
Of these, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Kerala, and West Bengal will go to the polls in 2026.
Kumar clarified that for Assam, which will also got to polls next year, the revision of electoral rolls will be announced separately.
The CEC said the ongoing SIR is the ninth such exercise since Independence, with the last one happening in 2002-04.
He highlighted that the first phase of the SIR was completed in Bihar with zero appeals.
“The second phase will be conducted in 12 states and Union territories. The SIR will ensure that no eligible elector is left out and no ineligible elector is included in poll rolls,” Kumar said.
“Phase-2 of SIR will cover 51 crore voters. While the enumeration process will begin on November 4, the draft rolls will be published on December 9, and the final electoral rolls on February 7,” he said.
