Neither voters nor Opposition satisfied with SIR, EC’s credibility under suspicion: Congress

Immediately after the Election Commission announced Special Intensive Revision of voter rolls in 12 states on Monday, the Congress questioned the practice and said the poll agency’s intentions and credibility were under doubt as neither the voters nor the opposition were happy about it.

Congress media and publicity chief Pawan Khera said in a video message published on

“By making the Election Commission and the EC its puppets, the intentions of the BJP regarding Bihar’s SIR have already come to light before the entire country.
“Whenever SIR occurs, Election Commission workers go to each house, add new voters and delete those that need to be deleted.”

However, Khera said that in Bihar, not a single voter was added but 65 lakh votes were deleted as part of the SIR exercise, which raises many questions.

He said that they are currently repeating this practice in 12 states. The Congress leader said that after ‘vote theft’ came to light in Rahul Gandhi’s Aland Assembly constituency in Karnataka, the SIT said that a central operation was being carried out to remove the names from the voters’ list. “We will know the details of this after the SIT investigation in Karnataka is completed,” he said.

“Amidst all this, it does not seem right that such an Election Commission, whose credibility and intentions are questionable, is conducting the SIR. Clearly, neither the people, nor the opposition, nor the voters are satisfied,” Khera said in his video message. he said.

Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar on Monday announced that the Election Commission will conduct Phase 2 of Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter lists in 12 states and Union territories.

The states and UTs are Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Puducherry, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.

Of these, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Kerala and West Bengal will go to polls in 2026.

Kumar announced that the revision of the electoral rolls for Assam, which will go to polls next year, will be announced separately.

The ongoing SIR is the ninth such exercise since Independence, with the last one taking place in 2002-04, the CEC said.

He emphasized that the first phase of SIR was completed in Bihar with zero objections.

“The second phase will be conducted in 12 states and Union territories. SIR will ensure that eligible voters are not left out and ineligible voters are not included in the voting lists,” Kumar said. he said.

“Phase 2 of SIR will cover 51 crore voters. The counting process will begin on November 4, draft lists will be published on December 9, and final voter lists will be published on February 7,” he said.