SIR begins in Uttar Pradesh after EC announcement, people will have to…, opposition has decided to…

Uttar Pradesh SIR: In a significant development from the week, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar announced that the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) drive will be undertaken in 12 states/Union Territories (UT)s. Minutes after the announcement, the update gathered global headlines and many states started to prepare themselves for the SIR process. Among the latest updates, the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls began in Uttar Pradesh today.

SIR of electoral rolls begins in Uttar Pradesh

In a significant update, Uttar Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer Navdeep Rinwa held a virtual meeting with district electoral officers and senior officials to brief them on the Summary Revision of Electoral Rolls (SIR) process.

As per the schedule of the Election Commission of India(BHARAT), the election returning officers (EROs) will print pre-filled enumeration forms for existing electors and hand them to booth-level officers (BLOs) between October 28 and November 3. The EROs will also train BLOs on procedures related to the revision exercise.

During the SIR process in their states, citizens will need to verify their voter details, apply for corrections, or register as new voters through their BLOs or online portal of ECI.

How has opposition reacted to SIR process?

Meanwhile, major opposition parties of Uttar Pradesh the Samajwadi Party (SP), Congress, and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP)  have raised concerns that the SIR exercise could be used to delete genuine voters from the rolls to favour the ruling BJP ahead of the 2027 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections.

SP president Akhilesh Yadav announced that the party would deploy senior workers as “SIR PDA Praharis” across all 403 constituencies to protect voters from the backward, Dalit, and minority (PDA) communities.

“Ensuring everyone gets their right to vote. Saving democracy by becoming the guardian of every vote”, Yadav said in his X post.

However, Uttar Pradesh deputy chief minister Brajesh Pathak supported the move and said, “The decision taken by the Election Commission of India(BHARAT) is commendable and only those people should have their names in the voter list who are eligible. Those who are foreign citizens and have become voters for some reason, their identification needs to be done. This is a commendable step.”