SIR EC's pre-poll homework for BJP, could deprive minorities: Punjab Congress chief

Punjab Congress president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring on Monday cautioned against the imminent Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls in Punjab.

“SIR is nothing but the pre-election homework the ECI does for the BJP now,” he alleged.

Warring noted that the Election Commission of India (ECI) has already announced the SIR for election-bound states in its current phase, and Punjab will definitely be next in line.

Reacting to the ECI’s proposal to carry out SIR in states like Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and West Bengal, which are scheduled for elections next year, he said Punjab will follow as the state is slated for polls in early 2027.

He further alleged that this is an “organised way of stealing votes by the ECI for the BJP.”

Warring said through the SIR, the ECI not only collects voters’ data, which it keeps at the disposal of the BJP, but also disenfranchises those it suspects of not voting for the party — including Dalits, Backward Classes, and minorities.

He expressed strong apprehensions that the BJP will repeat this tactic in Punjab using the “good offices of the Election Commission of India,” claiming that the BJP otherwise has no significant base in the state worth a single Assembly segment.

He asserted that Congress will not let the ECI do the BJP’s bidding in Punjab and cautioned citizens to be vigilant about the possible removal of their names from the electoral rolls, the main purpose of the SIR.

Warring added that Congress workers at the grassroots level will be assigned duties to prevent potential voter disenfranchisement through the SIR.