NEW DELHI: In a precursor to ordering a pan-india special revision of electoral roll (SIR), EC on Wednesday met the chief electoral officers (CEOs) of all states and UTs to assess their preparedness in terms of records of the last intensive revision and the status of current voter’s list, besides hearing their suggestions on the state/UT-specific documents that may be accepted to prove one’s eligibility for inclusion in the roll.EC is likely to order a pan-India SIR soon, possibly later this month or early next month. The SIR will be in lieu of the annual special summary revision (SSR) with Jan 1, 2026 as the reference date.
As in the case of Bihar, EC will take electors included in the roll published at the last intensive revision in a particular state/UT, as presumed citizens. At the CEOs meeting Wednesday – inaugurated by CEC Gyanesh Kumar along with election commissioners S S Sandhu and Vivek Joshi – EC heard the CEOs on the total number of electors, qualifying date of last intensive revision and status of roll based on the last SIR undertaken in their state/UT. All the states/UTs confirmed having the records and digitised rolls from the last intensive revision, and updated the poll panel on the status of mapping of current electors with those in the voter’s list based on the previous intensive revision.“The states/UT CEOs have already been matching the electors who figure in the roll from last intensive revision, with the current roll. This will save time in pre-enumeration activities. The enumeration forms of nearly 50-60% of electors present in both rolls will only need to be signed and not require any documentation,” an EC officer told TOI.The state/UT CEOs indicated the additional documents that may help establish a person’s citizenship status. “Some states/UTs issue documents unique to them. EC will take a call on whether to expand or tweak the existing list of documents on a pan-India basis or have a different set of accepted documents for each state/UT,” said an officer. With the purpose of SIR being that no eligible citizen is left out of the roll and no ineligible person included, there was consensus that documents sought should “promote ease of submission for eligible citizens”.While CEOs of states like West Bengal cited the upcoming festivals and holidays to demand a longer timeframe for SIR, EC is likely to take a pan-India view in this regard, rather than give standalone concessions to any state.Meanwhile, EC informed Calcutta HC Wednesday that preparations for a SIR of rolls in WB have begun and formal guidelines will be issued soon.
