A political storm brews as the Election Commission announces Special Intensive Revision of voter rolls in 12 states. Congress, Left, and DMK call it a “vote theft conspiracy”, while BJP hails it as a clean-up of “illegal voters.”
As the Election Commission of India (ECI) announced the second phase of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls across 12 States and Union Territories, a political storm has erupted — from Thiruvananthapuram to Kolkata and Raipur to Chennai. The move, described by the poll panel as a “routine electoral clean-up,” has drawn sharp reactions from opposition parties, who allege it is a politically timed exercise meant to favour the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The ECI plans to conduct the SIR between November 4 and February 7, 2026, covering Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Goa, Uttar Pradesh, Puducherry, Lakshadweep, and the Andaman & Nicobar Islands.
Congress Raises Red Flag: ‘SIR a Conspiracy Against Democracy’
Congress Party leader Pawan Khera accused the Commission of acting at the behest of the BJP and raised doubts over its credibility.
“We have not yet received answers to the questions related to the SIR conducted in Bihar. The situation was such that the Supreme Court had to step in several times to rectify the SIR in Bihar,” Khera said in a video message on X.
He alleged that the Bihar exercise had led to the deletion of 65 lakh voters, without adding a single new name.
“The intentions of the Election Commission and the BJP, which has made the EC its puppet, regarding Bihar’s SIR have already come to light before the entire country,” he said. “Whenever SIR happens, EC employees go to every house, add new voters, and delete those who need to be deleted. But not even a single voter has been added in Bihar, whereas 65 lakh votes have been deleted as part of the SIR exercise.”
The Congress also questioned the timing and intent of the second phase.
“Amid all this, conducting the SIR by such an Election Commission, whose credibility and intention are under suspicion, does not seem right. Clearly, neither the people, nor the opposition or the voters are satisfied,” Khera said.
On the party’s official handle, the Congress went a step further, alleging that the SIR was nothing short of a “conspiracy against democracy.”
“Various cases and methods of ‘vote theft’ are coming to light across the country, with votes being deliberately added in some places, while in others, they are being cut. The SIR to be conducted in 12 states is a plot to snatch away the rights of the people,” the party claimed.
In another post, Khera questioned if Bihar had been turned into a “laboratory for murdering democracy through SIR,” and whether the 12 states now under review would face the same fate.
“Is this round of SIR also just for vote-cutting, because in Bihar, the Election Commission has not taken any steps towards adding new voters, while 6.5 million votes have been cut,” he wrote in Hindi.
Kerala’s Left and Congress United in Opposition
In Kerala — one of the states included in the EC’s list — the announcement triggered rare unity between the ruling CPI(M)-led LDF and the opposition Congress.
The CPI(M) state secretariat issued a strongly worded statement, accusing the Centre of “turning the Election Commission into a puppet.”
“The BJP-ruled Centre is trying to subvert India’s democratic system by turning the Election Commission into a puppet,” it said, warning that the rushed revision could disenfranchise more than 50 lakh voters.
The party described the exercise as “illegal and undemocratic,” alleging that the Commission had frozen Kerala’s existing voter rolls at midnight on Monday.
“The Commission has ignored Kerala’s scientifically prepared voter list and frozen the existing rolls… The timing of the revision — when the state is preparing for local body polls — is a deliberate attempt to interfere with the democratic process,” it said.
KPCC president Sunny Joseph echoed those concerns, calling the decision “unilateral and irrational.”
“It is senseless to begin this process when preparations for local body elections are under way. The Election Commission must reconsider its decision,” Joseph said. “This effectively denies citizens their democratic right to vote. It is unclear why people who have been on the rolls for 23 years are being asked to go through the registration process again.”
LDF convener T P Ramakrishnan called the EC’s move “deeply undemocratic”.
“The poll panel, which should protect citizens’ voting rights, is instead taking steps that could disenfranchise lakhs of voters and seems aimed at serving the Sangh Parivar’s political interests,” he said.
Stalin Steps In: DMK Calls All-Party Meet
In Tamil Nadu, Chief Minister MK Stalin called the EC’s move “a conspiracy to rob citizens of their rights.” After a consultation meeting with alliance partners at Anna Arivalayam, Stalin announced an all-party meeting on November 2 to chalk out a collective response.
“To carry out Special Intensive Revision just months before the election, and especially during the monsoon months of November and December, brings serious practical difficulties. To conduct SIR in a hasty and opaque manner is nothing but a conspiracy by the ECI to rob citizens of their rights and help the BJP,” Stalin posted on X.
Citing Bihar’s experience, Stalin warned that the process could unfairly target vulnerable groups.
“In Bihar, large numbers of women, minorities and people from SC and ST communities were removed from the electoral rolls. The absence of transparency has fuelled serious suspicion in the public mind,” he said.
EC Defends Move: ‘States Are Constitutionally Bound’
Unfazed by the backlash, Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar defended the exercise, calling it a routine, constitutionally mandated process aimed at cleaning up voter rolls.
“The EC is doing its duty and state governments are constitutionally bound to discharge their duties. All constitutional bodies carry out their responsibility as enshrined in the Constitution,” Kumar said, citing Article 324.
Responding to concerns about law and order in states like West Bengal, Kumar asserted there would be “no hurdles”.
“Maintaining law and order is a state’s constitutional responsibility… states are also bound to provide necessary personnel to EC for preparing electoral rolls and conduct of polls,” he said.
He also clarified that Kerala’s local body elections had not yet been officially notified, which allowed the EC to proceed with the SIR.
“The SIR will ensure that no eligible elector is left out and no ineligible elector is included,” Kumar maintained.
BJP Welcomes the Exercise: ‘Will Weed Out Illegal Voters’
While the Opposition cried foul, the BJP threw its weight behind the EC.
In Karnataka, party leader R Ashoka said the exercise would help identify “illegal voters” from neighbouring countries.
“We welcome it, because many people from Pakistan and Bangladesh are there, and they are creating a voting pattern in India that is illegal. They are not citizens of India, how can they vote? That’s why we welcome the Election Commission’s decision,” Ashoka said.
In West Bengal, BJP state president Samik Bhattacharya accused the Trinamool Congress of distorting the SIR’s purpose to protect its “fake vote bank”.
“In the border districts — North and South 24 Parganas, Murshidabad, Malda and North Dinajpur — the TMC was trying to include the names of Bangladeshi and Rohingya infiltrators in the voter list,” he alleged. “Genuine Indian citizens, especially Hindu refugees, are being intentionally removed so that the TMC can keep its fake vote bank alive.”
He added that the BJP would reach out to every household to ensure that “no infiltrator” could vote.
“SIR must be fully digital. Every application, deletion and objection should be digitally documented and verifiable. The day the voter list becomes a list of true Indian citizens, TMC’s politics based on fake foundations will collapse,” Bhattacharya said.
Regional Voices: Mixed Reactions Across States
In Chhattisgarh, former Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel demanded transparency on how many “Bangladeshis” had been identified in the earlier SIR.
“The Election Commission should tell how many Bangladeshis have been identified in Bihar… how many people have been excluded? Even till now, the Union Home Ministry has not been able to tell how many people from Pakistan are living in Chhattisgarh,” Baghel said.
In Rajasthan, Deputy Chief Minister Prem Chand Bairwa welcomed the EC’s move.
“I would like to thank the Election Commission. For fake voters whose names were listed in two places, after investigation, the voter’s name will remain in the list only in the correct manner. This will remove all the errors that are there in the voter list,” he said.
The RJD, meanwhile, took a middle path. Its leader Mrityunjay Tiwari said his party had no objection to the SIR “as long as it is conducted fairly.”
“It is not right to steal votes through SIR or to deprive any citizen of the country of their right to vote. During the Bihar SIR, many irregularities were observed. EC should conduct the electoral process without bias,” he said.
What Lies Ahead
The enumeration phase for the SIR begins on November 4, followed by the publication of draft electoral rolls on December 9, and the release of final rolls on February 7, 2026.
For the Election Commission, it is a matter of procedure and constitutional duty. For the Opposition, it is a battle for democratic survival.
As the political tug-of-war intensifies, one thing is certain — the fight over India’s voter lists has become the newest frontline in the larger struggle over the country’s democracy itself.