EC to take call on pan-India SIR rollout soon; likely to be held by end of the year

AIMS TO CLEAN VOTER LISTS AND WEED OUT ILLEGAL MIGRANTS BY VERIFYING PLACE OF BIRTH

- OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Election Commission will soon rollout the nationwide Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise of electoral rolls. The poll body is likely to decide upon the date of the pan-India rollout of SIR to clean up the voter list across states before the end of this year, officials said here on Wednesday.

After a day-long meeting of EC's state chief electoral officers (CEOs) here, officials said with as many as five assembly polls due next year, the all-India SIR could take place in the coming months in 2025. The poll body met CEOs of all states and Union Territories to discuss the modalities of the pan-India SIR exercise.

Assembly elections in Assam, Kerala, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal are due in 2026. The primary aim of the intensive revision is to weed out foreign illegal migrants by checking their place of birth.

The move assumes significance in the wake of a crackdown in various states on illegal foreign migrants, including from Bangladesh and Myanmar.

During the conference, the election body reviewed presentations from states on the number of electors, qualifying dates of the last SIR, and the digitisation and uploading status of electoral rolls.