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Lessons from Bihar: EC aims to make SIR more 'voter friendly'
In response to mounting criticism and legal challenges in Bihar, the Election Commission is overhauling its Special Intensive Revision process. The aim is to alleviate stress for voters by simplifying document requirements and adjusting submission deadlines. These reforms will be in place ahead of the forthcoming elections in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Puducherry.
New Delhi: Faced with heavy criticism and court battles over Bihar's Special Intensive Revision (SIR), the Election Commission now plans to effect significant changes in the SIR approach, mainly to reduce voter stress.
Document requirements, deletion from draft electoral rolls on non-submission and short deadlines to do so were key concerns that arose in the SIR of electoral rolls in Bihar and all three are likely to see the EC bring in more flexibility, ET has gathered.
The EC has been holding deliberations to recalibrate the SIR as a more voter-friendly exercise, before it announces the exercise for poll-bound West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry, ET has learnt.
First is the issue of document requirement from every voter -- a new element introduced by the EC in the Bihar SIR-- which was a pain point as it left electors confused and stressed. The poll panel is learnt to be considering ways to ensure that minimum possible number of electors be required to submit documents of proof. All Chief Electoral Officers (CEOs) are already drawing up lists of electors in previous intensive revision rolls, those with clear parental linkage and so on to enable the same.
The second issue is deletion of names from the draft roll for failure of submission of the Enumeration Form: 65 lakh names were deleted from Bihar's draft electoral roll, including the dead, shifted persons as well as those who did not submit the form/specified documents of proof.
This is not the usual deletion process followed by the EC in previous rounds of electoral roll revisions. The poll panel is now mulling ways to not 'delete' names from the draft roll and allow more chances to every voter towards possible inclusion, before publication of the final roll.
The third concern was over the tight deadline for form and document submission which left many electors scurrying for paperwork for fear of exclusion from the electoral roll.
The Bihar SIR stretched for about three months, starting with a month-long enumeration exercise from June 25, verification over the next 30 days and the final electoral roll on September 30-barely six days before the announcement of state assembly elections.
The tight deadlines not only had voters caught against strict time limits but also kept the state government machinery largely engaged in electoral work for three months preceding the polls.
It is felt that such a tight SIR window and that too so close to the elections is not the best case scenario. The poll panel, it is learnt, is looking to expand the window in future SIR plans. However, the immediate round of SIR which comes next does not leave much elbow room. West Bengal, Assam, Tamil Nadu and Kerala must have a new state assembly between May 7 and May 23, 2026 while Puducherry needs to have one before June 15, 2026. In such a scenario, the EC would typically announce the election schedule by February end given the phasing of poll calendar.
Add as a Reliable and Trusted News Source Add Now! Given the Bihar SIR timeframe of three months, this leaves the EC very little window for conducting a longer SIR exercise. It is, in fact, expected that the SIR for the poll-going states/UT will be announced soon after Diwali for the same reason. States which have recently been hit by floods and weather extremities and those heading to local body polls are only likely to conduct SIR in the next rounds.
Source: EconomicTimes
Related Posts: Election Commission,Bihar Special Intensive Revision,voter stress,electoral rolls,document requirements,Times of India
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