Election Commission announces Phase 3 of SIR across 16 states, 3 UTs

The Election Commission (EC) on Thursday (May 14) announced that the third phase of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) will be held in 16 states and three Union territories.

The poll panel further stated that the SIR in its third phase will be conducted in Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, DNH & DD, Haryana, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, NCT of Delhi, Odisha, Punjab, Sikkim, Tripura, Telangana, and Uttarakhand.

According to the EC, once the third phase of SIR is completed, the entire country, barring Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, will be covered.

The poll body had held back its rollout due to Assembly elections in Kerala, Assam, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal held last month.

Enumeration and field verification

The EC further stated that during the third phase of the exercise, more than 3.94 lakh Booth Level Officers (BLOs) will undertake house-to-house visits covering 36.73 crore electors during the Enumeration Phase. They will be assisted by 3.42 lakh Booth Level Agents (BLAs) nominated by political parties, the commission said in a press statement.

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Elaborating further, the EC stated that door-to-door verification by BLOs will be carried out between May 30 and October 14 across the 16 States and Union Territories identified for the third phase. The publication of draft electoral rolls is scheduled from July 5 to October 21.

Describing SIR as a participative exercise involving electors, political parties and election officials, the commission urged all political parties to appoint BLAs for every polling booth to ensure transparency and full participation in the process.

Progress across earlier phases

EC further stated that in the first two phases of SIR, conducted across 13 States and Union Territories and covering nearly 59 crore electors as on the date of the respective orders, over 6.3 lakh BLOs and 9.2 lakh BLAs appointed by political parties were engaged at different stages of the exercise.

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The SIR exercise was launched by the EC with Bihar in June last year as part of an electoral roll purification drive, citing concerns over bogus, duplicate and ineligible entries, including deceased persons and “illegal immigrants”.

According to the commission, the exercise was initiated to remove such entries and ensure that the electoral rolls remain accurate and updated.

Coverage so far

So far, SIR has been carried out in 10 States and three UTs. They are Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Kerala, Puducherry, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Goa and Bihar.

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A ‘special revision’ of electoral rolls was carried out in Assam.

Sixty crore of the nearly 99 crore voters have been covered in the clean-up exercises of these voters’ lists.

(With agency inputs)