SIR begins in Uttar Pradesh; BLOs to visit households with forms
Lucknow (PTI): The Election Commission on Tuesday began the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise in Uttar Pradesh to clean the voter list.
The exercise was launched under the theme 'Shuddh Nirvachak Namavali – Majboot Loktantra' (Clean Electoral Roll – Strong Democracy), officials said.
As part of the exercise, booth-level officers, or BLOs, will visit every household from Tuesday to December 4, to verify and update voters' details, they said.
The BLOs will provide voters with pre-printed forms in duplicate and assist them in filling them out.
Each voter has been requested to fill out and sign both copies of the form, affix a recent photograph, and return the form to the BLO at the earliest, the UP Chief Electoral office (CEO) said in a statement.
Voters can also download the form online from https://voters.eci.gov.in.
Voters may call the helpline numbers 1950 or 1800-180-1950 for information on the exercise, it said.
According to the EC's schedule, a draft of the electoral roll will be published on December 9.
The people can file claims and objections between December 9 and January 8. Hearing and disposal of claims or verification will be done between December 9 and January 31.
The final publication of the electoral roll will be one February 7, 2026.
The special revision aims to ensure the accuracy and integrity of the electoral rolls ahead of future elections, officials said.
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Nitish Kumar's son Nishant among 32 to take oath as Bihar ministers
Patna (PTI): In a major expansion of the Cabinet of Bihar's first BJP-led government, JD(U) supremo Nitish Kumar's son Nishant Kumar and 31 others took oath as ministers on Thursday in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
Altogether 32 leaders, drawn from all constituents of the five-party NDA in the state, were administered the oath of office by Governor Lt Gen (Retd) Syed Ata Hasnain at a grand ceremony that was also attended by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Union Health Minister J P Nadda and BJP president Nitin Nabin.
Prominent inductees included Nishant Kumar, the son of JD(U) president Nitish Kumar, who stepped down as chief minister last month to enter the Rajya Sabha.
The BJP, which is the single largest party in the 243-member assembly with 89 MLAs, has 15 ministers, who took oath on Thursday.
Most of the inductees were those who were part of the Nitish Kumar cabinet formed in November last year after the NDA stormed back to power in the assembly polls.
The JD(U) is represented by a total of 15 ministers, 13 of whom took the oath at the Gandhi Maidan on Thursday. Vijay Kumar Chaudhary and Bijendra Prasad Yadav had taken oath in April along with Samrat Choudhary and were designated as deputy chief ministers.
Sanjay Kumar Singh and Sanjay Kumar Paswan, both from the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) headed by Union minister Chirag Paswan, are back as ministers, and so are Santosh Kumar Suman and Deepak Prakash, sons of Union minister Jitan Ram Manjhi of the Hindustani Awam Morcha and Upendra Kushwaha of the Rashtriya Lok Morcha, respectively.
