Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis defended the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) drive, saying it is not a new electoral exercise but has long been part of India’s electoral history.
The Election Commission of India has undertaken intensive revisions of electoral rolls at various points over the decades. The Opposition alleged that more than 13 crore voters were deleted by the ECI at the behest of the BJP. It alleged that voters’ rights were being taken away by deleting the names of genuine voters and adding those who favour the BJP during elections.
Fadnavis said that over the last 20 years, rapid urbanisation and frequent migration, along with the addition of new eligible voters, deaths and changes in residence, have led to significant changes in voter lists. He said that after two decades of such changes, an intensive revision helps ensure that electoral rolls reflect voters who are eligible today.
"The process of intensive revision of electoral rolls has a history of many decades in the electoral system of India. The Election Commission has conducted intensive revision of the electoral rolls at various stages to make the electoral rolls more accurate and reliable,” he said, adding that the Election Commission conducted an extensive revision of the electoral rolls in most parts of the country from 1952 to 1956.
“Then revisions were also conducted in most parts of the country in 1957, 1961, 1965, and 1966. Further revisions were also conducted in 1983–84, 1987–89, 1992, 1993, and 1995. The Election Commission revised the electoral rolls again in 2002, 2003, and 2004," Fadnavis said.
"While conducting the extensive revision, the Election Commission went door to door to collect information from the voters, collected the Enumeration Application (Enumeration Forms), and verified voters' records. In the comprehensive revision, the process of re-creating the voter lists through enumeration is carried out," the CM said.
He said in-depth verification is necessary from time to time. “One of the important objectives of the Election Commission is to include eligible citizens in the voter list and not to exclude any eligible citizen," the CM said.
"Comprehensive revision is a long-standing process in the electoral system to maintain the accuracy and reliability of voter lists. The current Special Intensive Revision (SIR) is the next phase of the same comprehensive process,” the CM added.
