Upcoming SIR to be as robust as first two held in 1950s

The upcoming special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in nine states and three UTs is going to be as robust and detailed as the first two exercises that were undertaken in Independent India during 1952-56 and 1957 amid massive influx in population, owing to the Partition.

Sources privy to developments said while eight SIR of voters’ lists have been held since Independence, the ninth one, first phase of which was held in Bihar between June and September this year and the second phase will start from November 4 and culminate on February 7, 2026, will be as accurate as the first two held in the 1950s during the tenure of the country’s first Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sukumar Sen.

Since the main aim behind conducting SIR is to ensure that the electoral lists are made more robust, the ongoing SIR, and ninth such exercise will be of the same magnitude as the first two ones held in 1952-56 and 1957.

It should be noted that the first two SIR of electoral rolls were done with utmost scrutiny and seriousness as at that time there was a lot of influx in population owing to Partition, since people were constantly either coming into India or leaving for Pakistan, almost a decade after the Partition, sources in the Election Commission said.

During the first two SIR of electoral rolls, those who had the enumeration forms were included in the voters’ list, while those who could not do so, were excluded. The current exercise is also being held with the same intent, which became quite clear from the fact that 68 lakh names (with 65 lakh in the draft list) were deleted from the poll rolls of Bihar in the first round, with several of them either found to be dead (22 lakh), or having names in more than one place (seven lakh) while the remaining 36 lakh were found to have permanently shifted.

With the current SIR being conducted with an eye on striking out possible infiltrators who might have enrolled themselves in the country’s rolls over the years, the comparisons with the first two such exercises held in the 1950s becomes imminent.

At that time due to Partition, several citizens continued to move in and out of the country for almost a decade and in fact well into the 1960s, and that is why the third and fourth SIR of rolls were held in quick successions in 1961 and 1965-66.

The marked difference though is that while during the early years of Independence, the nation was in a flux and the SIR was seen as part of a process to flesh out a new nation’s electoral rolls, the current exercise is being seen with suspicion and has raised a political storm, with the Congress-led Opposition alleging that the EC is working in cahoots with the ruling BJP and is trying to delete Muslim, poor and migrant voters in the garb of ‘purifying’ the electoral rolls, a charge which the poll body has vehemently denied.

EC officials say that it is not their job to identify infiltrators, and that the SIR would only help in identifying eligible voters and leaving out ineligible ones. In its June 24 order on SIR of electoral rolls, the EC had said that maintaining integrity of the electoral roll was fundamental for the conduct of free and fair elections.

“In line with this objective, the EC has previously exercised its powers under enabling statutes in the years such as 1952-56, 1957, 1961, 1965-66, 1983-84, 1987-89, 1992-95 and 2002-04 to undertake intensive revision of electoral rolls for all or some parts of the country for afresh preparation of electoral rolls through enumeration,” the order read.

“The current SIR was also needed as significant changes have taken place in electoral rolls due to additions and deletions on a large scale over this long period. Besides, rapid urbanisation and frequent migration of population on account of reasons like employment has necessitated the exercise as the last one was held in 2002-04. Since then, a whole new generation of fresh voters have arisen,” said the sources.

The current exercise was to be held in 2022, but was delayed for three years due to the pandemic and other unforeseeable reasons.