SIR of electoral rolls begins in 12 states, UTs; TMC calls exercise a 'con job'
New Delhi (PTI): Election Commission's Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voters' list commenced in nine states and three Union territories on Tuesday with the TMC dubbing the exercise as a "con job" by the "compromised" poll body.
The electoral roll cleanup exercise is also being opposed by the ruling DMK and its allies in Tamil Nadu.
The Election Commission (EC) said its booth-level officers (BLOs) have fanned out to hand over semi-filled enumeration forms to electors and will also help them fill the required document.
According to the schedule announced by the poll authority, SIR will begin with the enumeration stage and continue till December 4.
ALSO READ: ECI team to visit Bengal to review SIR procedures: Official
The EC will release the draft electoral rolls on December 9, and the final electoral rolls will be published on February 7.
The 12 states and UTs where the second round of SIR will be conducted are the 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 will go to polls in 2026. In Assam, another state where polls are due in 2026, the revision of electoral rolls will be announced separately as a Supreme Court-supervised exercise to verify citizenship is underway in the state.
Also, a separate provision of the Citizenship Act was applicable to Assam.
After Bihar, this is the second round of SIR. The state's final voter list with nearly 7.42 crore names was published on September 30.
ALSO READ: SIR begins in Uttar Pradesh; BLOs to visit households with forms
The SIR began in West Bengal amid soaring political temperatures over the exercise in the state.
The exercise turned into a political battleground, pitting the BJP's clout and the poll body's push for "transparency" against the Trinamool Congress' grassroots resistance ahead of the 2026 assembly polls.
While the BJP has welcomed the SIR as a step towards ensuring greater transparency in the electoral rolls, the ruling TMC has questioned its timing and intent, alleging that the EC is acting under pressure from the saffron party to manipulate the voter list ahead of the state elections next year.
With both parties treating the SIR as a prelude to the 2026 assembly elections, the contest has morphed into what many in political circles describe as "the battle of two forces, the administrative and the organisational".
TMC leader Derek O'Brien termed the SIR exercise a "con job organised by the Extremely Compromised body".
Separately, the DMK, in its plea before the Supreme Court against the SIR, has dubbed it a "de facto NRC" and has challenged its constitutional validity. The ruling party in Tamil Nadu has sought the quashing of the EC's notification on SIR dated October 27, 2025.
However, the main opposition, AIADMK, an ally of the BJP, supports the exercise.
In Uttar Pradesh, the exercise was launched under the theme 'Shuddh Nirvachak Namavali – Majboot Loktantra' (Clean Electoral Roll – Strong Democracy).
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Karnataka legislative session to focus on leadership row, farmers’ issues, flood relief
Belagavi (PTI): The 10-day winter session of the Karnataka Legislature, starting December 8 here, is expected to focus on the Congress leadership tussle, farmers’ grievances, and flood relief.
The unified opposition of the BJP and JD(S) has drawn up a strategy to corner the ruling Congress on multiple issues.
BJP leaders have announced plans to move a no-confidence motion following the leadership row between Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and his deputy D K Shivakumar.
Siddaramaiah has asserted that he will complete the full five-year term, while Shivakumar has claimed he was promised the chief ministership midway through the Congress government’s tenure.
The power tussle intensified after the government completed two-and-a-half years on November 20.
Following a war of words on social media, the two leaders later presented a united front through ‘breakfast diplomacy’. However, the fight is far from over, as the party's high command held a meeting in New Delhi on Saturday to discuss the issue in detail.
Congress general secretary K C Venugopal told reporters in Delhi on Saturday that the party had discussed Karnataka and that further meetings are expected. Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister H K Patil said on Thursday that the government has not received any notice of a no-confidence motion from the opposition.
Farmers’ protests have given the opposition additional ammunition to target the government.
About a month ago, sugarcane growers staged an unprecedented strike, blocking roads to demand Rs 3,500 per tonne against the state government’s offer of Rs 3,200 per tonne.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah sought the Centre’s intervention, citing flaws in the Fair and Remunerative Price (FRP), which remains frozen at Rs 31 per kilogram, leaving mills unable to pay farmers.
He urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to revise the sugar MSP, ensure mills can pay farmers, provide assured ethanol offtake for Karnataka distilleries, and issue a central notification for handling and transportation costs to enable transparent, farmer-friendly pricing.
To calm the agitating farmers, the state government offered an additional Rs 100 per tonne, shared equally by the state and mills, raising the net cane price to Rs 3,200-3,300 per tonne.
After the sugarcane strike, maize growers have also protested, demanding procurement at Rs 3,000 per quintal.
The current MSP is Rs 2,400 per quintal, and farmers are seeking a Rs 600 bonus. Ahead of the session, the state government announced increasing maize procurement from 20 quintals per farmer to 50 quintals at Rs 2,400 per quintal.
The session will also see the tabling of 21 bills, including measures to check hate speech and hatred crimes, a law against misinformation, the Daily Wage Employees Welfare (Amendment) Bill, and the Karnataka Social Boycott (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Bill.
Other key bills include the Karnataka Scheduled Castes (Sub-Categorisation in Reservation) Bill, the Karnataka Domestic Workers (Social Security and Welfare) (Amendment) Bill, and the Karnataka Apartment Ownership (Regulation) Bill.
Law and order issues may also come up during the session in light of recent incidents of robbery and dacoity across the state.
