Electoral rolls revision: SIR to formally start in one week, EC tells Madras HC

THe Election direction of republic of india (ECI) on fri informed the Madras heights margaret court that the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of Tamil Nadu’s electoral rolls would commence in a week as part of a nationwide exercise.ECI standing counsel Niranjan Rajagopalan made the submission before the bench of chief justice Manindra Mohan Shrivastava and justice G Arul Murugan during the hearing of a petition filed by former AIADMK MLA B Sathyanarayanan, who sought directions to the ECI to conduct a complete and transparent re-verification of electoral rolls in 229 booths of the T Nagar constituency in Chennai.States like Tamil Nadu that are set to go to polls early next year are expected to be covered in the first phase of the exercise, it said.So far, the controversial exercise has been conducted in Bihar, which goes to polls next month.A counsel in the case, seeking anonymity, said the ECI’s submissions were based on a two-day consultation involving the chief electoral officers (CEOs) of various states to discuss the conduct of SIR across the country. “The exact date of when the exercise will begin will be announced by the ECI,” the counsel added.HT had reported on October 23 that the ECI might undertake an upcoming nationwide SIR of electoral rolls in two phases, beginning with the five states — Kerala, West Bengal, Assam, Puducherry and Tamil Nadu — that are scheduled to go to the polls early next year.An officer, who attended the opening session of the first day of the conference on Wednesday, said that the first phase will focus on five poll-bound states where the preparation process might begin in first week of November.The official added that the second phase will cover the remaining states and Union territories, where preparations are expected to begin by November last week.DMK spokesperson A Saravanan said the party will closely monitor the implementation of SIR in Tamil Nadu. “We have seen how the ECI colluded with the BJP and meddled in Bihar. We will be closely watching the terms on which they implement SIR in Tamil Nadu,” he said. “...We will thwart any evil attempts of the ECI to meddle in Tamil Nadu’s electoral rolls.”The petitioner had represented the T Nagar constituency, a bustling commercial-residential constituency in the heart of Chennai, between 2016 and 2021. In his affidavit, he had stated that T Nagar had 2,08,349 registered voters in 1996. And 53% of them– 1,13,853 – voted during the polls that year. In 2021, the number of registered voters had increased to 2,45,005. The petitioner questioned how there could only be a marginal increase of 36,656 voters in a span of 25 years.