Kerala SIR: number of ‘uncollectable’ enumeration forms rise to 25 lakh. List of untraceable, dead and shifted voters to be published online

Political parties on Monday expressed concern over the large number of voters listed as ‘absent, shifted or dead’ (ASD) in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls; Chief Electoral Officer (Kerala) Rathan U. Kelkar even stated that the ASD list will soon be uploaded online in a searchable format for public perusal.

This list, described as ‘non-collectible enumeration forms’ by the Election Commission of India (EC), has grown to just over 25 lakh names as of Monday morning. These include 6.44 lakh deceased, 7.11 lakh classified as untraceable, 8.19 lakh permanently displaced/absent voters, 1.31 lakh duplicate names and 1.93 lakh in the ‘others’ category, which includes people refusing to return forms.

Stand-wise details of 25 lakh people, including names and EPIC numbers, are expected to be uploaded on district-level websites on Monday evening or Tuesday, Mr. Kelkar said. With the counting phase of the SIR ending on December 18, the list had sparked heated debate at the weekly political party meeting chaired by Mr. Kelkar on Monday.

A district-wise breakdown shows that Thiruvananthapuram has the highest number of uncollected forms (4.36 lakh), followed by Ernakulam (3.34 lakh).

Representatives of CPI(M), Congress, CPI, IUML, Kerala Congress, Kerala Congress (M) and RSP demanded that the ASD list be published online and made available to them for verification. They pointed out that the number has increased by over 5 lakh since the last meeting on December 6. It has been argued that if SIR were truly carried out effectively, the total number should decrease. They demanded the urgent publication of the list by booth and Assembly segment for verification purposes to prove that the SIR process is truly inclusive.

“There were only 20 lakh names in the list in the meeting on December 6. It is important to publish the names in the ASD list immediately,” said senior CPI(M) leader MV Jayarajan, who represented his party in the meeting on Monday. Congress’s MK Rahman urged Mr. Kelkar to request the EC to give Kerala more time to verify the names in the ASD list. CPI leader Sathyan Mokeri and IUML State Secretary Mohammed Shah questioned the criteria used by election officials to declare someone dead. “Even if a person is mistakenly listed as dead, it is a serious matter,” he said.

The BJP urged the EC to ensure that the notifications sent to voters at the verification stage clearly state the reasons. Representing the BJP, JR Padmakumar said that the names of no individual should be deleted without a proper personal hearing.

Mr. Kelkar said that counting forms have been distributed to all 2.78 crore voters on the electoral rolls as of October 27, 2025. According to him, a total of 99.7% of the forms were returned and transferred to the digital environment. The meetings between the EC-appointed booth level officials (BLO) and the political parties’ booth level representatives (BLA) to discuss the ASD lists were expected to be completed by Monday.

According to the revised SIR calendar, the counting phase will end on December 18. Draft voter rolls will be published on December 23. The filing period for claims and objections lasts between December 23 and January 22, 2026. Reporting phase (hearing and verification) between 23 December and 14 February. The final lists will be published on February 21. The Congress demanded that the CEO hold weekly review meetings with political parties until publication. from the last shots.