Staff Reporter / New Delhi
The Election Commission has directed Chief Electoral Officers in all 20 states where the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) has been completed to conduct a “special drive” to identify and restore voters left out of the electoral rolls, according to an investigation published by The Indian Express.
Under the exercise, Booth Level Officers (BLOs) will undertake house-to-house visits to assist voters whose names were deleted as “unmapped” or due to “logical discrepancy”. Such voters, along with first-time voters, will be able to seek inclusion through the statutory Form 6.
The report said the additional question introduced in Form 6 in July, seeking details on whether an applicant’s parents were listed in the previous SIR roll, will apply only during the SIR phase. In states where SIR has concluded, applicants will use the standard Form 6 without the additional family-linkage question.
The decision follows an Indian Express investigation that reported internal objections within the three-member ECI over several aspects of the SIR process. Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had reportedly raised objections on record multiple times over decisions concerning voter deletions, the centralisation of electoral-roll data and changes to Form 6.
One major point of contention was the addition of a new declaration to the online version of Form 6 on the ECINet portal. The provision asked new applicants to provide details about whether their parents or grandparents were listed in the previous SIR roll. The two Election Commissioners had described the change as “unauthorised” and “illegal”, according to the investigation.
The Commission has now removed the additional SIR declaration from Form 6 in states where the revision has been completed. Consequently, “left out” voters and first-time applicants in these states will use the standard statutory Form 6, without the additional question relating to their family’s presence in the previous SIR roll.
The latest move is significant against the backdrop of the wider SIR controversy, which has involved concerns over large-scale deletions, access to voter databases and the internal decision-making process within the ECI. The Commission has also announced measures relating to the review of its ECINet system