The Conundrum That Is Special Intensive Revision
The Election Commission of India first conducted SIR in Bihar. It is now being conducted in 12 states and Union Territories.
Published : December 29, 2025 at 6:30 AM IST
By Arundhati Dhuru and Sandeep Pandey
The last Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the Voters’ List was carried out in 2002-03 without anybody even coming to know of it, just like India became a one or two trillion dollar economy without much publicity. It is only when India became a three trillion dollar economy that the country came to know of it, thanks to the propaganda embarked upon by the Narendra Modi government. Similarly, the 2025-26 SIR is taking place with a lot of hullabaloo. This government has a knack for making a show out of everything.
The SIR form has the current details of the voter printed. He or she has to provide date of birth, Aadhar Card number (not mandatory), names of parents and spouse and if available, their current Electoral Photo Identity Card (EPIC) numbers. This is the easier part. The bottom half is critical. This is what will prove that the voter or his/her family have been living in this country for the last 23 years, a criteria decided by the Election Commission of India (ECI), to determine genuine citizens of this country, although they don't say this is in so many words. Anybody failing to provide these details is in danger of their name being struck off the voters’ rolls.
In the bottom half, one has to provide either one's details in the voter list published after the last SIR in 2003 or that of one of the parents or grandparents in that list. The 2003 voter list has been made available on the website of the ECI. However, if one is not sure of one's Assembly Constituency or the booth where one's name figured in the 2003 voter list, then one can end up wasting precious hours searching for one's or parents' or grandparents' details, for these lists are not machine searchable, the PDF being in Hindi in Uttar Pradesh.
It is quite likely that one is living at the same place, but the Assembly Constituency as well as the polling booth might have changed. People are confused as they are unable to recall their booth even if they happen to have found out their AC from people living in that area. Fortunately, the mobile numbers of Booth Level Officers are given at the top of the SIR form, and they usually pick up the phone unless they are distressed or have succumbed due to work pressure. The higher-level officials are not helping by just concentrating on their performance compared to the other states.
Some BLOs are telling people to merely fill the top part of the form and submit it to them. There are diligent BLOs, especially in rural areas where it is easier to do so as the voters or their families haven't moved, are filling the critical three figures - AC number, Part number and serial number of voter, in the bottom half and then giving it to the voter to fill the remaining form.
It is not clear as to what will happen to the forms which have only the top half filled as advised by their BLOs. If one discovers their or their parents’ or grandparents’ 2003 details after having submitted the form with the top half filled, the BLOs are not willing to update the SIR form with additional information, saying it is beyond their mandate, jeopardising the chances of the voter making it to the revised list. There are BLOs, who are under pressure to show results, are filling forms of voters without their consent and submitting them. If the names of these voters don’t appear in the initial list to be published after the deadline for filling SIR forms, then they’ll have to fill form 6 to get their names added as a new voter.
There are voters, who find themselves in quandary, because their names or their parents’ or grandparents’ names appear in the 2003 list, but they haven’t received the SIR form as they don’t find their names in the current list. Their names have been either accidentally or deliberately removed from the voter rolls. As they haven’t received the SIR, they cannot submit it in spite of having the old EPIC and their or their parents’ or grandparents’ names in the 2003 list. They too will be required to fill the form 6 even though they are not new voters.
As a specific case, people living in Vasant Kunj, Lucknow, who were allotted houses under the PM urban EWS housing scheme after their original houses were demolished in Akbar Nagar last year in a different AC are not being given their SIR forms by the BLO who claims that he has been instructed from the top to not give the forms to the former Akbar Nagar residents. The District Electoral Officer, who happens to be the DM, wants them to fill form 6 for new voters after the initial list is released. It is quite likely that when hundreds of citizens, mostly Muslims, will fill form 6, somebody or the other is going to raise the issue of so many new Muslim voters being added to the voters roll, overlooking the fact that they or their parents or grandparents have been voters in 2003. Tech-savvy people from this community who have successfully filled their SIR form online are being told by the BLO of Akbar Nagar that their forms will be rejected. A real possibility of disenfranchisement stares in their faces.
(Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister) Yogi Adityanath is not helping the cause of voter list revision by declaring in the middle of the SIR process that detention centres will be created in each district. These detention centres were originally conceived in Assam, where there is a problem of foreigners, Bangladeshis illegally entering India. But where is the problem of foreigners or intruders in Uttar Pradesh, or for that matter in Bihar? During Bihar SIR, the only intruders they could discover were Nepalese women married to Indian men, such marriages being common in the border area. And the authorities cannot do anything about them.
Now, the Lucknow Mayor Sushma Kharakwal has gone on a drive to identify Bangladeshis among sanitation workers. Before her, Brij Lal, a Rajya Sabha MP and retired Director General of Police, one day stopped his car and enquired from a group of sanitation workers about their identity. Do people's representatives have the right to verify the citizenship of anybody? In Assam, there is a Foreigners Tribunal set up under the Foreigners Act, which adjudicates on the matter of citizenship. People residing in Basic Services for Urban Poor scheme houses in Dubagga, Lucknow, are being visited by police to provide their occupancy documents and copies of their Aadhar cards. The harassment by the administration has caused fear in the minds of people.
This manhunt for the elusive intruder is basically a propaganda of the BJP. It helps them in the polarisation of votes. There was no reason to do the SIR in Bihar in a hurry, and now the same thing is being done in Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Kerala, Chhattisgarh, Goa and the Union Territories of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Puducherry and Lakshadweep. The panic created among voters and BLOs was definitely avoidable.
On major street crossings in Lucknow Public Address System is making an appeal to the voters to fill their enumeration forms online. For filling the form online, the EPIC has to be linked to a mobile number, and even though the enumeration form says that providing Aadhar Card information is optional, an OTP will be sent to the mobile number linked to the Aadhar Card. Thus, the online process compels one to reveal their Aadhar Card number. The spellings of names in English, along with EPIC number, will be accepted only if they match with what has been fed into the computer by EC employees. The lists available contain names in Hindi. One will consider oneself lucky if they are able to fill the form successfully.
It is quite clear that the SIR process has been undertaken without thorough preparation by the ECI and thrust upon the people in a manner which is casting doubt on the intention of the ECI. Nobody knows why the citizens are being harassed in this manner compared to the earlier process, where the BLO would visit homes and treat the citizens with respect, complete the verification process without making a fuss about it? Today, the administration is on a rampage, and citizens are victims.
(Arundhati Dhuru is with the National Alliance of People’s Movements, while Sandeep Pandey is with the Socialist Party (India).)
(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writers. The facts and opinions expressed here do not reflect the views of ETV Bharat)
