As the third phase of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls nears its end, more than 6 crore names have been deleted from the voters’ registry as per the draft lists published so far.
The final rolls will start coming in on September 6, with Mizoram, Sikkim and Manipur set to be the first States to publish their lists. However, the numbers in the final voter lists could be different, as the Election Commission of India (ECI) provides a window for people to submit claims and objections for additions and deletions from the draft, as well as for the registration of new voters. In a letter to Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar, Karnataka Chief Minister D.K. Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy has also done the same. The SIR exercise has already been conducted in Bihar, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Puducherry, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Goa, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and Lakshadweep. The SIR process has led to acrimony between Opposition parties and the ECI, and it has also been challenged in courts. In March, the Supreme Court unanimously upheld the constitutional validity of the ECI’s move to carry out the SIR exercise.
Shivakumar has raised serious concerns over what he called the “massive and unjustified” voter deletions under the SIR process, urging the EC to extend the claims and objections window. In Assam, due to the legalities of the National Register of Citizens (NRC), a “special revision” of electoral rolls was conducted instead of SIR.
