Congress Sets Up System To Monitor SIR, Deploys Workers To Help Voters In States
The grand old party said the poll panel was rushing through the process, which was causing stress among the BLOs conducting the exercise.
Published : November 22, 2025 at 6:11 PM IST
New Delhi: The Congress has set up a system to monitor daily and weekly reports related to the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in 9 states and 3 Union Territories (UT) to keep a tab on the controversial voter list revision being conducted by the Election Commission of India (ECI).
The ongoing second phase of the SIR will cover nearly 51 crore electors across 9 states - Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal and 3 UTs - Andaman and Nicobar, Lakshadweep and Puducherry.
According to Congress insiders, as per the standard operating procedure framed for the purpose, the All India Congress Committee (AICC) war room is monitoring daily and weekly reports filed by the state units where the exercise is on. The grand old party has asked its local workers to help the voters fill up the enumeration forms so that no genuine voters are left out of the SIR, as it happened in Bihar, where over 65 lakh names were deleted after the exercise in August 2025.
However, as the grand old party is planning to counter the ECI move, it is faced with organisational gaps in several states. Accordingly, in states where the Congress has organisational gaps, the party has asked the respective state units to appoint booth-level agents and deploy the block or mandal level workers where the BLA strength is not optimal.
The problem of organisational gaps and lack of sufficient BLAs was mentioned by some senior party functionaries during a review by the AICC on November 18. It was also suggested that accountability of office bearers at all levels should be fixed in relation to the SIR challenge, but no strict rule was formulated by the AICC, the insiders said.
Yet, as part of the monitoring system, the local workers in Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh have been suggested that their contribution in getting additions done to the voter list would be factored in when the party would decide who should get a chance in the coming local body elections. This has spurned a lot of local leaders into action in their respective areas with an eye on the 2026 local body elections.
"The strategy to deal with the SIR has been discussed with the state and AICC leaders. It has been decided that our workers will ensure active and strong participation in the exercise down to the booth level," AICC in charge of Uttar Pradesh Avinash Pande told ETV Bharat.
According to Congress insiders, the grand old party was against the manner in which the entire SIR process was being rushed through and had put a lot of pressure on the BLOs, many of whom had taken their lives because of it.
"The Congress is committed to protecting the sanctity of the voter list. Serious questions have been raised about the conduct of the ECI in the SIR process—it must prove that it is loyal to the Constitution, not under pressure from any power. Our workers are vigilant; every conspiracy of voter deletion and fake additions will be exposed. The misuse of democratic institutions will never be accepted," said Pande.
"The news of continuous suicides by BLOs in Jaipur, West Bengal, Kerala and Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, and Tamil Nadu due to SIR work pressure is extremely heartbreaking and distressing. In Sawai Madhopur, Rajasthan, a BLO died of a heart attack, and family members allege that it happened due to work pressure," AICC functionary Jitendra Singh, who conducted an SIR workshop for party workers in Alwar assembly recently, told ETV Bharat.
"Why are the Election Commission (of India) and the BJP in such a hurry after all? What kind of frenzy is this that government employees are being subjected to undue pressure in adverse working conditions? These are extremely inhumane and unfortunate incidents; governments should pay attention to this," said Singh, a former Union Minister.
Further, the way the voter list revision was being implemented on the ground had created confusion in the minds of the voters, said the Congress insiders.
"We are getting information that enumeration forms are not being issued to the voters if their names are not there in the 2002 list. In other instances, the BLOs lack sufficient knowledge about the exercise and are just distributing forms to the voters. We are appointing more BLAs and have asked our mandal level workers to chip in as we have around 70 per cent BLAs in place," Gujarat Congress chief Amit Chavda told ETV Bharat.
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