Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Dec 2: In a major breakthrough to clear the logjam over the opposition demand for discussions on the “Special Intensive Revision” (SIR) of the electoral rolls, the floor leaders in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday agreed to take up the debate on the electoral reforms on December 9 preceded by discussion on the 150 years of the national song Vande Mataram the previous day, the Parliamentary affairs minister Kiren Rijiju said.
“All parties have agreed to have a discussion on 150 years of Vande Mataram next Monday. On December 8 and 9, the discussion on electoral reforms will take place,” said K Suresh, the Congress’s chief whip in the Lok Sabha. Suresh added that Trinamool Congress too did not object to the plan. The government was keen to have a debate on 150 years of Vande Mataram before taking up the short-duration discussion on electoral reforms, specifically the SIR.
The decision was taken at an all-party meeting and a Business Advisory Committee (BAC) chaired by Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, signalling that the logjam prevailing in both Houses over the Opposition’s demand to discuss SIR is likely to be broken. The agreement is expected to help ensure a better functioning of the ongoing winter session in the Lok Sabha. The Rajya Sabha floor leaders are yet to decide the schedule of debates.
The winter session began on a fractious note on Monday as Opposition parties demanded an immediate debate on electoral reform and disrupted business, despite the government’s assurance that it would consider the proposal.
“During the All Party Meeting Chaired by Speaker Lok Sabha today, it has been decided to hold discussion in Lok Sabha on 150th Anniversary of National Song ‘Vande Mataram’ from 12 Noon on Monday, December 8 and discussion on Election Reforms from 12 noon on Tuesday, December 9,” Mr Rijiju said in a post on X. Just ahead of the BAC meeting, Mr Birla met party leaders to break the deadlock in the House over the Opposition’s demand for a discussion on SIR.
“The BAC meeting discussed the debates to be held on Vande Mataram and electoral reforms, (with) opposition’s SIR discussion debate clubbed under electoral reforms. On Monday (December 8, 2025), the House will take up the debate on Vande Mataram and then on Tuesday (December 9) and Wednesday (December 10), the House will debate electoral reforms,” Mr Suresh told reporters after the BAC meeting.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will initiate the debate on 150 years of Vande Mataram. He said 10 hours each have been allotted to both the debates, adding that time could be extended if the House deems fit.
The Speaker’s meetings came in the wake of repeated disruptions in the Lok Sabha over the issue. Earlier in the day, Mr Rijiju who met leaders of Congress, Trinamool Congress (TMC), Samajwadi Party, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), Communist Party of India (Marxist), and Aam Aadmi Party on Tuesday, said the discussion would take place, but the Opposition cannot insist on the timeline.
Opposition leaders said there was no clarity on when the discussion on the issue will be taken up. “We told the government that they should come and announce that the discussion on SIR will be taken up on Wednesday in the Lok Sabha and then the Rajya Sabha… but they are not doing that,” TMC leader Derek O’Brien said after the meeting.
Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said there was no assurance from the government on the timeline of when the discussion will be taken up. “There is a huge trust deficit which is simply unbridgeable owing to how the government behaves with the Opposition,” he said. Initially M. Rijiju is learnt to have ruled out a discussion on SIR, contending that it was an administrative matter of the Election Commission and the government had no role in it.
However, the Minister was ready for a discussion on a broader subject of electoral reforms as it fell within the government’s purview. The Opposition has been insisting that the government give an assurance on the floor of the House on the discussion on the SIR exercise. The Lok Sabha was adjourned for the second consecutive day over Opposition protests on the SIR exercise currently underway in 12 states and Union Territories.
The Opposition rallied to push for a discussion on the SIR. In the Rajya Sabha, TMC, Congress, and DMK lawmakers trooped into the Well, raising slogans demanding an assurance on when the discussion will be taken up on the issue. They pointed out that as many as 28 Block Level Officers involved in SIR had passed away.
An Opposition leader said the government was keen on a discussion on Vande Mataram first and then take up SIR. “They want to push the discussion on SIR to next week when there will barely be time to take up the important issue,” the leader said.
Meanwhile, terming a petition by the Kerala government to extend the date for submission of forms for the SIR “just and fair”, the Supreme Court on Tuesday advised the Election Commission to consider the proposal.
The Kerala government had approached the court and asked that the deadline be pushed back at least by a week beyond December 13 since the local body elections in the state were scheduled for December 9 and 11, and the counting will be held on December 13.
A Bench headed by the Chief Justice of India Surya Kant directed Kerala to make a representation, if not already made, with the ECI, detailing its reasons for seeking an extension. The representation should be filed with the ECI by December 3. The court urged the ECI to consider the representation of the State “sympathetically and objectively” in the next two days.
The Election Commission informed the bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi that the original deadline of December 4 has been extended to December 11, but the state said more time is needed to enable government employees engaged in local polls to fill their own forms. “It seems to us that the aforesaid request is just and fair…we therefore permit Kerala to submit a request-cum-proposal for extension of the last date of the enumeration form by a week or so,” Chief Justice Kant said.
Appearing for the Election Commission, Senior Advocate Rakesh Dwivedi said the last date for submission was December 4, which was extended by a week to December 11. “You extend it more so anyone who has missed out will also get an opportunity…Any officers in the state occupied in the elections would also want to enrol in the (SIR),” Chief Justice Kant replied.
When he was told that the State Election Commission has filed an affidavit that the staff involved in local body elections have been exempted from SIR duties, the Chief Justice remarked, “It appears the government machinery does not have a problem (with the SIR process and local body elections being done simultaneously), certain political parties have a problem.”
The Election Commission informed the court that the state has deployed 1.76 lakh dedicated staff for the State Election Commission, while 25,468 have been deployed for the SIR process. “98.8% of SIR forms have been distributed and 80% of the forms have been digitised upon receipt,” the poll body said.
Kerala is on the cusp of elections to its 1,200 local self-government institutions made up of 941 gram panchayats, 152 block panchayats, 14 district panchayats, 87 municipalities, and six corporations. There are a total of 23,612 wards heading for polls in the State.
The ECI had recently extended the deadline for completing the enumeration stage from December 4 to December 11 amidst reports of Booth-Level Officers, assigned to distribute the forms to electors on a house-to-house basis, wilting under the “overwhelming pressure” of work, with some even losing their lives.
The Kerala government, along with its regional parties, besides the ruling party of Tamil Nadu and leaders from West Bengal, has separately challenged the very Constitutionality of the SIR in the apex court.
But Kerala’s problem is more immediate. The State government said it was heading towards an “administrative impasse” with both the SIR and the local body elections happening simultaneously. The State was staring at a crisis with hardly any personnel left to do the day-to-day government functioning. The State urged the court to intervene with the ECI to defer the SIR for the time being.
Appearing for Kerala, advocate C.K. Sasi said polling for the local body elections were on December 9 and December 11. The counting of votes would be on December 13, and the last date for completion of election was scheduled on December 18.
The State said the local body elections would require deployment of 1,76,000 personnel from government and quasi-governmental services for election-related duties, and a further 68,000 police and other security personnel. It said the SIR also would need 25,668 persons from a pool of trained staff experienced with election-related work.
