Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, July 15: Not only the opposition parties, even an ally of the BJP, the Telegu Desam Party (TDP) has expressed apprehensions about the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the voters list currently undertaken in poll-bound Bihar with the Election Commission of India (ECI) hinting of extending the exercise at the national level.
As questions are raised over the ongoing SIR of electoral rolls in Bihar, which is scheduled to go to the polls by the end of the year, the TDP, the second largest constituent after the BJP in the NDA, on Tuesday sought clarity on “the scope of the exercise” and said it should be made clear that it was “not related to citizenship verification.”
The TDP letter to the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) come in the wake of the ECI on Monday activating resources for a potential national SIR of voter lists. Some states – including national capital Delhi and Uttarakhand – have already released current lists, a move seen as a prelude to asking voters to re-verify their names on the rolls.
Sources said the Election Commission would take a final call on a pan-India voter list revision – for the purpose of weeding out non-Indians by identifying each individual’s place of birth – after July 28, when the Supreme Court was expected to complete the hearing of the petitions challenging the SIR exercise in Bihar.
Last week the Supreme Court had affirmed the Election Commission’s authority – under the Constitution – to review these lists “so non-citizens do not remain on the rolls.” Section 21 of the Representation of People Act (RPA) of 1950 says the Election Commission is tasked with preparing and revising electoral rolls for all Assembly and parliamentary constituencies in the country.
The term ‘electoral roll’ or ‘voter list’ refers to a register of all eligible and registered voters in each constituency. The list is critical to ensure a free, fair, and transparent electoral process. Under Section 16 of the RPA non-citizens are excluded from this list, while Section 19 allows for the inclusion of all Indian citizens over the age of 18.
In its letter to the CEC Gyanesh Kumar on Tuesday, the TDP parliamentary party leader Lavu Sri Krishna Devarayalu, which was also signed by five other party leaders, said, “The scope of the SIR must be clearly defined and must be limited to electoral roll re-correction and inclusion. It should be explicitly communicated that the exercise is not related to citizenship verification, and any field instructions must reflect this distinction.”
The letter was submitted to the EC after TDP leaders met it as part of an ongoing exercise by the poll panel to take suggestions from political parties to strengthen electoral processes. Asked about the letter, TDP national spokesperson and one of the signatories, Jyothsna Tirunagari, said there was no link between the ongoing SIR in Bihar and the party’s suggestions. “We just met the EC and, as we were asked for suggestions, made our stand clear on the electoral process. We are a democratic party and would want transparency in the electoral process,” she said.
The TDP’s suggestions come after the poll panel wrote to Chief Electoral Officers (CEOs) of all states on July 5, directing them to begin preparations for a Bihar-like exercise — this time with January 1, 2026, as the qualifying date.
Days after the Supreme Court questioned the EC over the timing of the SIR in Bihar, the TDP letter says that any such electoral roll revision should “not ideally be within six months of any major election”. “To ensure voter confidence and administrative preparedness, the SIR process should be conducted with a sufficient time lead,” the letter says. Taking up the exercise in Bihar with the State Assembly elections round the corner was one of the major objections of the opposition parties and was also appreciated by the apex court.
The Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu-led party has also said voters included in the electoral rolls must not be required to re-establish their eligibility “unless specific and verifiable reasons are recorded” and called for a third-party audit under the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) to identify anomalies.
Some of the other suggestions include district-wise data on voter addition and deletions with explanations on the EC portal, permission to Aadhaar-based cross-verification, penalties for inaction by EROS (Electoral Registration Officers) and DEOs (District Election Officers), a state-level ombudsman under the EC to handle unresolved grievances, and targeted re-enrolment campaigns for migrant workers, tribal groups and senior citizens.
“Temporary address declarations must be permitted with basic documentation to prevent disenfranchisement of the mobile population… where voters are unable to submit documents at the time of visit, age-wise verification must be permitted,” the letter read. Signatories also included party MPs Byreddy Shabari and D Prasada Rao, and TDP state president Palla Srinivasa Rao.
Voter lists are typically revised before an election or after an administrative exercise like redrawing of constituencies, and there are three kinds of these revisions, Intensive, Summary and Special Intensive. Under the Intensive revision, the exercise is undertaken when the EC feels current lists are outdated or inaccurate, and is basically an exercise in completely re-creating a voter list, meaning personnel go house-to-house to collect fresh data.
The Summary revision was meant to be an annual exercise to refresh voter lists and only involves the Election Commission publishing the list and inviting people to correct, modify, or delete details. The ‘Special Intensive’ revision – a combination of the two – in Bihar is only carried out when the poll panel feels there are large-scale errors, and is allowed under Section 21(3) of the RP Act.
A revision – ‘intensive’, ‘summary’, or ‘special intensive’ – helps remove ineligible voters and also add those who may have been missed in earlier lists, as well as include newly eligible voters. Importantly, it ensures migrant voters and shifting populations are accurately counted.
On Monday the Election Commission said it had dropped 35 lakh names from the Bihar list. The poll panel said 1.59 per cent of registered individuals, equivalent to 12.5 lakh voters, were found to have died. Another 2.2 per cent, or 17.5 lakh electors, had relocated and are no longer eligible to vote in the state. And 0.73 per cent, around 5.5 lakh, had double-registered. EC sources said this data underlined the importance of revising voter lists.
Also last week, EC sources said door-to-door visits had revealed ‘many’ people from neighbouring countries, like Nepal, Bangladesh, and Myanmar, on the voter lists. Sources said these people managed to obtain Indian government documents like domicile certificates and ration cards in their name, and had been wrongly included in the voter list.
The principal challenge is to ensure eligible voters are not disenfranchised. The reference is specifically to voters from poorer sections of society and from marginalised communities, who may not (now) have access to the documents required for re-verification. Inter and intra-state migrant populations are another at-risk community.
A large chunk of Bihar’s adult population, for example, moves to other states in search of employment. In most cases they retain voting rights at their place of birth but, because of a lack of education, awareness, and access to documents, cannot always prove this to be the case. Apart from these issues, even a state-wide voter list revision requires significant funds and use of manpower, which may place additional strain on the poll body’s resources. This is particularly a concern if the EC is scheduled to hold an election just months later, as it is in the case of Bihar.
The Bihar exercise has run into trouble for two reasons – one, because it comes just months before an election in that state, and two, because the EC had said common government IDs, such as the Aadhaar and its own voter identity card, could not be used for re-verification.
The opposition – the Congress and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) – has argued a revision at this late stage is a ‘conspiracy’ to slash its support base by excluding lakhs of people, including those who have already voted in 10 major elections since the last revision. The opposition also questioned the legality of the exercise and flagged the poll body’s decision to not accept commonly-used government IDs, such as the poll body’s own identity card, for re-verification.