Poll roll revision ph-2 begins amid protests

The second phase of the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls kicked off in 12 states and Union Territories on Tuesday as poll officials sought to allay fears about the controversial exercise and opposition parties hit the streets in protest.

- HT Correspondents

Over the next month, booth-level officers will visit homes to distribute and collect partially-filled enumeration forms in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Puducherry, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal. Among these, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Kerala, and West Bengal are due for assembly elections in 2026.

The enumeration process began on Tuesday, with draft rolls to be published on December 9, and the final rolls on February 7, 2026. In all, roughly 510 million or about half of India's electorate will be covered in this round's SIR. The current SIR marks the ninth such revision of electoral rolls since Independence, with the last conducted between 2002 and 2004.

"The distribution of EFs has already begun in all 12 States/ UTS and 100% of EFs have been printed. Like Bihar, the SIR in these 12 states and UTs will be a story of huge success," said election commission officials.

The Bharatiya Janata Party has backed the SIR. But in key states such as West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh, major political parties hit the streets in protest.

In Kolkata, chief minister Mamata Banerjee led a massive rally through the heart of the city and alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party was conspiring to delete the names of legitimate voters.

"If even one genuine voter's name is struck off the rolls, the BJP government will be shaken to its core. The fall of this government will be inevitable," she said.

The BJP accused her of fearmongering. "Those whose parents have residential, birth proofs in India, need not worry. TMC is misleading people," said BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari.