Cong to hold meeting of top office-bearers of 12 states, UTs where SIR is underway on Tuesday

New Delhi, Nov 17 (PTI) Amid the Bihar poll debacle and its "vote chori" pitch, the Congress will hold a review meeting on Tuesday of in-charges, state unit chiefs, Congress Legislature Party leaders and secretaries of 12 states and Union territories where the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls is underway.

After facing a severe drubbing in Bihar, where the NDA cruised to victory with 202 seats against the Mahagathbandhan's 35, the Congress has questioned the role of the Election Commission (EC) in the poll process, after its top leaders, including Rahul Gandhi and party chief Mallikarjun Kharge, met to discuss the dismal outcome.

A senior party functionary said the review meeting of AICC in-charges, Pradesh Congress Committee chiefs, Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leaders, and secretaries of 12 states and UTs where the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise is underway will take place at the Indira Bhawan on Tuesday.

More than 50 crore of the nearly 51 crore electors in the nine states and three UTs have received enumeration forms under the ongoing SIR of voter list, the EC said on Monday.

In its daily SIR bulletin, the poll authority said 50.11 crore enumeration forms have been distributed in the 12 states and UTs. In other words, 98.32 per cent of the 50.99 crore electors have received the partly filled forms.

The states and UTs are: Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Puducherry, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and Lakshadweep.

Among these, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Kerala, and West Bengal will go to the polls in 2026.

In Assam, where elections are also due in 2026, the EC announced a 'special revision' of electoral rolls on Monday.

Phase-II of the SIR exercise began on November 4 with the enumeration stage and will continue till December 4.

On Friday, Rahul Gandhi called the Bihar poll results surprising, and claimed that the election was not fair from the very beginning.

Gandhi also said the Congress and the INDIA bloc would conduct an in-depth review of the outcomes.

The Congress also claimed that the results, without a doubt, reflect "vote chori on a gigantic scale - masterminded by the prime minister, the home minister, the EC".

Gandhi's poll campaign against the BJP in Bihar revolved around his "vote chori"(vote theft) allegations. PTI ASK ARI