Congress Questions Election Commission’s Credibility Over Voter Roll Revision in 12 States

The Congress questioned the Election Commission's decision to hold Special Intensive Revision of electoral records in 12 states on Monday, stating that neither the opposition nor the people were satisfied with the process and that the poll body's credibility and objectives were being questioned.

Congress' chief of media and publicity, Pawan Khera, stated in a video message uploaded on X that "we have not yet received answers to the questions related to the SIR conducted in Bihar." Because to the circumstances, the Supreme Court had to intervene multiple times to correct the Bihar SIR.

"The intentions of the Election Commission and the BJP, which has made the EC its puppet, regarding Bihar's SIR have already come to light before the entire country.

"Whenever SIR happens, Election Commission employees go to every house, add new voters, and delete those who need to be deleted." But not even a singe voter has been added in Bihar, whereas 65 lakh votes have been deleted as part of the SIR exercise, which raises several questions, Khera said.

According to Khera, EC is currently rerunning the exercise in 12 states.

The Congress leader added that the SIT was conducting a coordinated operation to remove names from the voter list after Rahul Gandhi exposed "vote theft" in the Karnataka constituency of Aland Assembly.

"We will come to know about the details of this after the SIT probe is complete in Karnataka," he said.

"Amid all this, conducting the SIR by such an Election Commission, whose credibility and intention are under suspicion, does not seem right. Clearly, neither the people, nor the opposition or the voters are satisfied," Khera alleged in the video message.

The Congress also alleged on its X handle that various cases and methods of "vote theft" are coming to light across the country, with votes being deliberately added in some places, while in others, they are being cut.

"The Election Commission should have responded to these cases. It should have investigated them, but instead, the Election Commission got involved in the game of 'vote theft' itself.

"The SIR to be conducted in 12 states is a conspiracy against democracy. It is a plot to snatch away the rights of the people," the Congress said.

In a post on X, Khera also asked whether Bihar has been turned into a "laboratory for murdering democracy through SIR".

"In the 12 states where SIR has been announced, will its guidelines be different from those of the 2003 SIR," he asked.

"Is this round of SIR also just for vote-cutting, because in Bihar, the Election Commission has not taken any steps towards adding new voters, while 6.5 million votes have been cut," Khera said in his post in Hindi.

At a news conference on Monday, Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar declared that the Election Commission would carry out Phase-2 of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral records in 12 states and Union territories.

These include the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Gujarat, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Puducherry, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Lakshadweep, Chhattisgarh, Goa, and Gujarat.

In 2026, elections will be held in Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Kerala, and West Bengal.
Kumar clarified that the electoral roll modification for Assam, which would also go to polls the next year, will be announced separately.

A separate provision of the Citizenship Act was applicable to Assam, he said.

The enumeration procedure will start the second phase of SIR on November 4 and run through December 4. The final electoral rolls will be published on February 7 after the EC releases the draft on December 9.

The present SIR, according to the CEC, is the eighth such exercise since Independence; the last one took place in 2002–04.

He emphasised that there were no appeals in Bihar once the SIR's initial phase was finished.

"The second phase will be conducted in 12 states and Union territories. The SIR will ensure that no eligible elector is left out and no ineligible elector is included in poll rolls," Kumar said.

"Phase-2 of the SIR will cover 51 crore voters. While the enumeration process will begin on November 4, the draft rolls will be published on December 9, and the final electoral rolls on February 7," he said. 

With PTI inputs.