Neither voters nor Opposition satisfied with SIR, EC's credibility is under suspicion, says Congress

Soon after the Election Commission on Monday announced that it would conduct the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls in 12 states, the Congress questioned the exercise, and said the poll body's intentions and credibility were under suspicion as neither the voters nor the opposition was satisfied with it.

In a video message posted on X, Congress' media and publicity head Pawan Khera said, "We have not yet received answers to the questions related to the SIR conducted in Bihar. The situation was such that the Supreme Court had to step in several times to rectify the SIR in Bihar."

He said, "Whenever SIR happens, Election Commission employees go to every house, add new voters, and delete those who need to be deleted."

But not even a singe voter has been added in Bihar, whereas 65 lakh votes have been deleted as part of the SIR exercise, which raises several questions, Khera said.

Now they (EC) are repeating the exercise in 12 states, Khera said.

The Congress leader also said that following the revelation of 'vote theft' in the Aland Assembly constituency in Karnataka by Rahul Gandhi, the SIT said that a centralised operation was being carried out to strike names from the voter list.

"We will come to know about the details of this after the SIT probe is complete in Karnataka," he said.

"Amid all this, conducting the SIR by such an Election Commission, whose credibility and intention are under suspicion, does not seem right. Clearly, neither the people, nor the opposition or the voters are satisfied," Khera alleged in the video message.

Khera also asked whether Bihar has been turned into a "laboratory for murdering democracy through SIR".

"In the 12 states where SIR has been announced, will its guidelines be different from those of the 2003 SIR," he asked.

The Election Commission will conduct Phase 2 of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in 12 states and Union territories, Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar announced at a presser on Monday, 27 October.

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 the polls in 2026.

The second phase of SIR will begin on November 4 with the enumeration process and continue till December 4. The EC will release the draft electoral rolls on December 9, and the final electoral rolls will be published on February 7.