Special Intensive Revision In 22 States, UTs Soon: Claim ECI Sources

By Santu Das

New Delhi: The third phase of Special Intensive Revision (SIR) will soon start in the remaining 22 States and Union Territories (UTs) across the country, sources in the Election Commission of India (ECI) claimed on Friday.

Currently, the second phase of the SIR is being conducted by the poll panel in nine states and three UTs. These include Andaman and Nicobar, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Lakshadweep. These also include election-bound states like Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Kerala, and Puducherry.

In Assam, however, the ECI is carrying out a Special Revision of the electoral roll currently. The state is scheduled to go for Assembly polls early next year.

The ECI, as per legal provisions, is empowered to prepare and update electoral rolls. To maintain the integrity of these rolls, it orders a revision of the electoral rolls before each election or whenever deemed necessary. Considering that many alterations have occurred in the existing electoral roll due to ongoing migration, resulting in voters being registered in several locations and the inability to eliminate deceased individuals from the rolls, it is carrying out this exercise in a phased manner.

The SIR seeks to guarantee that no eligible citizen is omitted and that no ineligible person is incorporated into the electoral roll, as per the poll panel.

Notably, the first phase of the SIR was conducted in Bihar, prior to the Assembly elections this year. The poll panel had announced the second phase following the "successful" conduct of this exercise. There were zero appeals in SIR in the state.

Out of the 28 states and eight UTs, so far, the poll panel conducted SIR in Bihar, nine other states and three UTs, while in Assam, Special Revision is underway. This means so far the poll panel has covered 14 states and UTs out of the 36 states and UTs.

In response to a query on the third phase of the SIR, sources in the ECI told ETV Bharat, "The poll panel will soon start the SIR in the remaining 22 States and UTs."

They, however, did not divulge much in this regard.

Sources in the poll panel claimed that Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar is scheduled to visit Odisha on Saturday.

"The Chief Election Commissioner is scheduled to visit Odisha tomorrow. He will visit the other SIR remaining states," they said.

It may be mentioned that recently, the Chief Election Commissioner visited Telangana. During his visit, he interacted with the BLOs in Hyderabad. Telangana is among the remaining 22 States and UTs for the SIR.

It is worth mentioning that the BLO is a local government or semi-government official who has an in-depth knowledge of the local electorate and is a voter within the same polling district. They assist in the updating of the electoral roll by leveraging their local knowledge. The BLO acts as a representative of the poll panel at the grassroots level, fulfilling a crucial role in the roll revision process and gathering accurate field data pertinent to the electoral roll for their assigned polling area.

Referring to the interactive session of the Chief Election Commissioner with the BLOs in Hyderabad, Vinod, a BLO was quoted as saying, in a video shared by the Office of the Chief Electoral Officer of Telangana on X, "The Chief Election Commissioner shared his vast experience and knowledge on accuracy of electoral rolls, SIR, timely grievance redressal, operational guidelines in making rolls accurate and error free. He also highlighted voter awareness to increase the voter turnout in urban areas. He also gave practical insights on field-level challenges."