INDIA Bloc Claims Win As Centre Agrees To Debate SIR On Dec 9 In LS
The Centre agreed to debate the issue after losing two days in the ongoing session, as better sense prevailed within the NDA.
Published : December 2, 2025 at 9:03 PM IST
New Delhi: The INDIA bloc claimed victory after the government agreed to debate electoral reforms in the Lok Sabha on December 9. The controversial summary intensive revision SIR of the voter lists in states across the country will be part of the debate on electoral reforms, which a united opposition has been demanding since the winter session of parliament started on December 1.
The controversy around SIR had started before the Bihar assembly elections in June. The SIR issue had become a major bone of contention between the opposition and the government during the previous monsoon session and had resulted in the loss of several work days.
The opposition had blamed the SIR, which led to the deletion of lakhs of names in the voter list for the INDIA bloc’s Bihar drubbing and also opposed the extension of the exercise in 9 states and 3 UTs subsequently.
Congress insiders said that during the INDIA bloc strategy meeting on Dec 1 morning leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, had made it clear that the SIR was related to democracy and hence a debate over the issue was non-negotiable. The opposition also protested the issue outside the parliament building over the past days.
The government finally agreed to debate the issue after losing two days in the ongoing session, as better sense prevailed within the NDA. On Dec 14, the Congress is planning to stage a huge rally in Delhi over the SIR issue and has asked the party’s youth wing to carry out protests across states.
“It is a win for the opposition, which was united over the demand for a debate on the SIR, but the government was not willing. Now they have agreed to debate electoral reforms on December 9. One full monsoon session was washed away because of this, and we lost two days of the winter session. Democracy is not a playground for diversion; it demands accountability,” Congress whip in the Lok Sabha, Manickam Tagore told ETV Bharat.
“We are concerned about several BLO deaths related to the ongoing SIR work pressure and the manner in which the exercise is being rushed through despite glitches being reported from the states. The SIR is being used to delete the votes of OBCs,” he said. In August, Rahul Gandhi conducted a yatra across Bihar to flag the issue of SIR along with RJD leader Tejaswi Yadav.
“The opposition had been pressing for a debate on the SIR. It is good that the debate will take place and both sides will get a chance to put facts in the House. There are several issues with the exercise, and the correct picture should emerge. There is no democracy in the country as the government is pushing its agenda. The SIR did matter in Bihar, and the assembly poll result was unusual. It was never supposed to be one-sided in favour of the NDA. The ground reality was different. On top of that, several Bihar BJP MLAs have got strikingly similar numbers of votes, which raises suspicion,” RJD Rajya Sabha MP AD Singh told ETV Bharat.
After Bihar, the SIR is going on in Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal and 3 UTs namely Andaman and Nicobar, Lakshadweep and Puducherry. The DMK has taken the matter to the Supreme Court and is monitoring the exercise aggressively in the southern state.
“The opposition is united over the SIR issue,” DMK Lok Sabha MP DM Kathir Anand told ETV Bharat. In West Bengal, the ruling TMC had opposed the SIR, saying the BJP was pushing it to further the agenda of alleged infiltrators from Bangladesh ahead of the 2026 assembly elections.
“The SIR is a very tricky issue, and there are several flaws in the way the exercise is being rolled out in West Bengal and other states. The BJP is pushing it for political purposes in Bengal, but we are not going to let them do that. We had flagged our concerns in detail before the EC, but did not get a satisfactory answer. It is good that opposition pressure worked, and they have agreed to a debate. The monsoon session was lost due to the stubbornness of the government. Let us see what they have to say,” TMC MP Mahua Moitra told ETV Bharat.
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