ECI unveils voter-roll fixes as Congress, BJP clash over SIR deletions

The Election Commission has announced a set of measures aimed at voters caught up in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, a day after the three-member panel met to settle issues that had been flagged internally over the past ten months.

The decisions were taken at a meeting of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi on Saturday. They followed objections recorded by Sandhu and Joshi on at least 14 occasions over a ten-month period against decisions and orders, some of which they said were issued without their knowledge.

What the Commission has promised

Under the new arrangements, booth-level officers will visit homes to collect and upload documents on the Commission's unified portal, ECINet, for people who remain unmapped or whose records show logical discrepancies.

In-person hearings before Electoral Registration Officers and Assistant Electoral Registration Officers will no longer be mandatory except in exceptional cases, and will preferably be held online. District election officers have been directed to set up enough help desks and hold special camps for residents of night shelters, labourers, the poor and the homeless, as needed.

The poll panel said several upgrades to the portal had already been made on the basis of feedback from state chief electoral officers over recent months, and that further flexibility sought by field officers would be made operational.

Congress calls measures 'piecemeal'

Congress general secretary in-charge of communications Jairam Ramesh described the Commission's press note as a damage-control exercise that reveals little, and said the proposed steps amount to an admission that the SIR has been a disaster. He argued that the promised home visits merely repeat a house-to-house enumeration that was, in practice, sparse and sporadic.

For the 5.43 crore voters he said are at risk of deletion, Ramesh questioned the value of a second round of visits. He also said that for nearly 14 crore voters deleted across all three phases of the SIR, the Commission's answer is that they must apply afresh to their Electoral Registration Officers for inclusion — disenfranchising people en masse and then asking them to get themselves re-added.

Congress media and publicity department head Pawan Khera said 13 crore voters have been removed under the SIR, and asked what happened to the remaining 10.2 crore if the BJP's figure of 2.8 crore deceased voters is accepted. He asked whether the BJP was conceding that electoral rolls had been poorly maintained for years.

Congress general secretary KC Venugopal, responding to Union Minister JP Nadda's criticism of the Opposition's allegations against the poll panel, said Rahul Gandhi's claims had been established by the objections raised by two Election Commissioners.

BJP defends the exercise

The BJP said more than one crore duplicate entries and 2.8 crore names of deceased voters were removed from electoral rolls across 31 states and Union Territories under the SIR, which it said was exposing the rot. It asked who benefited from keeping duplicate names on the rolls and why there was panic over cleaning up voter lists.

In another post, the party said 9.43 crore absent and shifted names had been identified and removed, amounting to 9.92 per cent of the total electorate, and accused the INDI Alliance of opposing an exercise meant to ensure accurate lists. BJP spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi said the Commission had made clear that all major decisions, including the SIR, were taken unanimously by all three election commissioners, and accused the Congress of misleading people and questioning the credibility of a constitutional institution.

Youth Congress protest

Wearing masks bearing the faces of the Chief Election Commissioner and the Prime Minister, the Youth Congress staged a protest demanding greater accountability and transparency in the electoral process and rolls. Marchers set out from the Indian Youth Congress office on Raisina Road towards Jantar Mantar, raising slogans and carrying posters, with the wing announcing plans to gherao the Commission's office.

IYC president Uday Bhanu Chib said the protest was prompted by questions being raised within the Commission itself over decisions concerning electoral rolls, and that the country deserves answers and accountability.