After Bihar, Election Commission May Extend Special Intensive Revision Nationwide; Key Meeting on Sept 10

New Delhi- Following the controversy over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in poll-bound Bihar, the Election Commission of India (ECI) is now considering conducting the exercise across the country.

According to sources, the ECI has summoned all state Chief Electoral Officers (CEOs) to a meeting in Delhi on September 10 to deliberate on the matter. The session will be chaired by Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar, along with other election commissioners and senior officials of the poll body.

The SIR drive in Bihar triggered a political storm after opposition parties—including the RJD, Congress, CPI, CPM, TMC, and SP—accused the Commission of acting against its mandate by deleting large numbers of voters, particularly from marginalized communities.

With assembly elections due next year in West Bengal, Assam, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Puducherry, reports suggest the Commission is inclined to carry out SIR nationwide, a move expected to spark fresh political clashes between the ruling and opposition parties.

Chief Ministers Mamata Banerjee (West Bengal) and M.K. Stalin (Tamil Nadu) have already voiced strong opposition to the drive, while BJP-ruled states have backed the Commission’s initiative.

Last month, in his first press conference, CEC Gyanesh Kumar dismissed allegations of bias in Bihar’s SIR, asserting that “some are trying to fool the voters” by casting doubts on the poll body’s credibility. Without naming any party, he rejected claims that the Commission was acting in collusion with the BJP.

“When politics is being done by targeting the voters of India with the Election Commission as the scapegoat, we want to make it clear that the Commission stands like a rock with all voters—poor, rich, elderly, women, youth, and of every religion—without any discrimination,” Kumar said in Delhi.

With inputs from IANS