New Delhi : Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar on Monday announced that the second phase of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls will begin from Tuesday across 12 States and Union Territories – Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Goa, Puducherry, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, and Lakshadweep. Addressing a press conference in Delhi, Kumar said, today we are here regarding the rollout of the second phase of the Special Intensive Revision.
Kumar said the first phase of the SIR, conducted in Bihar, covered over 90,000 polling booths and was completed successfully with zero appeals. The participation of voters in Bihar has been exemplary and sets a benchmark for other states, he said. In the states where SIR will be conducted, electoral rolls will be frozen at midnight tonight. He emphasised that the SIR is aimed at ensuring no eligible voter is left out and no ineligible voter remains on the rolls.
Highlighting the detailed verification plan, the CEC said, All voters on that list will be given Unique Enumeration Forms by the Booth Level Officers (BLOs). These forms will contain all necessary details from the current voter list. The CEC further explained that once BLOs begin distributing the forms, voters will be able to verify their details against historical voter records.
Kumar said that training of polling officials for Phase II of the SIR will begin on Tuesday, ensuring that field teams are prepared for the door-to-door verification exercise. BLOs will visit every household three times. To address the issue of migrated voters, people can now submit their enumeration forms online, he said.
He also directed Chief Electoral Officers and District Electoral Officers in all participating states to meet with political parties and brief them about the SIR process “by the day after tomorrow” to ensure full transparency. The new Enumeration Forms will be pre-filled with already available details, including records from previous SIR exercises, to simplify verification. The CEC said this approach would make the process more efficient and reduce the scope for errors.
Kumar explained that the SIR process is critical to maintaining accurate and credible electoral rolls. “There are several reasons why an exercise like SIR is needed. These include frequent migration, which leads to voters getting registered at more than one place, non-removal of dead voters, and wrongful inclusion of any foreigner,” he said.
This ongoing SIR marks the ninth such exercise since Independence. The country has previously seen eight rounds of SIR between 1951 and 2004, with the last one held 21 years ago, between 2002 and 2004. Kumar noted that political parties have on several occasions raised concerns about the quality of electoral rolls, prompting the Election Commission to initiate the Special Intensive Revision once again to ensure greater accuracy and transparency.
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