New Delhi: As the Election Commission (EC) moves to wind up the special intensive revision (SIR) of the electoral list in Bihar, the poll body is gearing up to announce SIR nationwide. The SIR across the country is expected to take place by the year-end, in one go, for all states and UTs.
It is learnt that the EC is waiting for the September 8 hearing in the Supreme Court pertaining to the revision of the electoral list in Bihar before making any announcement.
According to sources, given the paucity of time, the EC officials and voters are racing against time to complete the SIR process in Bihar ahead of the Assembly elections in the state. However, with no deadline for election hanging on EC’s head immediately after Bihar, the SIR in other states and Union territories can be conducted more smoothly. The electoral officials across the country have been sounded and the booth level officers and booth level agents of political parties are undergoing training in batches for this in Delhi.
Kerala, West Bengal, Assam and Tamil Nadu will go for Assembly polls in 2026 as the tenure of these state governments comes to an end in May. Accordingly, the polls in these states will be held by April 2026. The EC is planning to keep at least six months in hand between the start of the SIR exercise and elections in these states.
Sources said that there has been a lot of learning during the Bihar exercise and the issues flagged by people and parties will be handled better during the nationwide SIR. This includes having “House No. 0” for several voters.
“For several years, the House No. 0 was given to those homes that have no house numbers. No one questioned this all these years. But with the electoral rolls now under much focus and scrutiny, we plan to find a better way to deal with this notional house number,” said EC sources, underlining that the poll panel process is transparent.
Meanwhile, in Bihar, as the EC gets ready to release the updated data of the controversy-ridden SIR, an interesting fact has come to the fore. There have been 2.17-lakh applications filed by voters for exclusion of names. Contrary to this, there were 36,475 applications for inclusion of names in the voter list. While a detailed analysis is yet to be done, sources pointed out that the initial impression is that these deletions may pertain to either dead voters or the removal of duplicate names.
“The SIR has made people aware to come forward and engage in fair play. It seems people who have names at multiple places have developed cold feet and are rushing to get names deleted and retain them only at one place. What is to be noted is that the voters are directly filing this with the EC,” sources said.
Among political parties, a total of 119 complaints for exclusions have been filed and 25 for inclusion. CPI(ML)-Liberation has filed 103 complaints and the BJP has given ten names to be removed. For inclusion, the CPI(ML)-Liberation has given 15 names and the RJD has given 10 names. Besides, 16.56 lakhs first-time voters have applied for names inclusion.
Meanwhile, New Delhi’s electoral registration officer has issued a notice to the Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera for having his name allegedly registered in two constituencies. As per EC records, his name shows up in Kakanagar in New Delhi under Assembly constituency number 40 and in Nizamuddin East, Jangpura, in New Delhi under Assembly constituency number 41 with two different EPIC numbers.
Khera had on Monday in a press conference alleged that the Congress had filed 89-lakh complaints regarding the voter list in Bihar with the EC. The Bihar chief electoral officer has asked for evidence with an affidavit before taking action to delete such a large number of votes.
