SIR of electoral rolls begins in 12 states, UTs; Mamata Banerjee slams it as 'silent invisible rigging'

New Delhi/Kolkata, Nov 4 (PTI) Election Commission's Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voters' list commenced in nine states and three Union territories on Tuesday, amid objections from several parties with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee leading the anti-SIR offensive in West Bengal with a rally in Kolkata and alleging "silent, invisible rigging" through the exercise.

Besides Banerjee's Trinamool Congress (TMC), the electoral roll cleanup exercise is also being opposed by the ruling DMK and its allies in Tamil Nadu which approached the Supreme Court on Monday on the issue.

The Election Commission (EC) said its booth-level officers (BLOs) have fanned out to hand over semi-filled enumeration forms to electors and will also help them fill the required document.

According to the schedule announced by the poll authority, SIR will begin with the enumeration stage and continue till December 4.

The EC will release the draft electoral rolls on December 9, and the final electoral rolls will be published on February 7.

The 12 states and UTs where the second round of SIR will be conducted are the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Puducherry, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.

Among these, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Kerala and West Bengal will go to polls in 2026. In Assam, another state where polls are due in 2026, the revision of electoral rolls will be announced separately as a Supreme Court-supervised exercise to verify citizenship is underway in the state. Also, a separate provision of the Citizenship Act was applicable to Assam.

After Bihar, this is the second round of SIR. The state's final voter list with nearly 7.42 crore names was published on September 30.

The SIR began in West Bengal amid soaring political temperatures over the exercise in the state. Over 80,000 booth-level officers (BLOs) visited homes to distribute enumeration forms, kicking off a politically sensitive exercise ahead of the 2026 assembly polls.

More than 16 lakh enumeration forms were distributed by the BLOs till 4 PM, a senior official said.

Addressing an anti-SIR rally in Kolkata, Banerjee branded the exercise "hurried and politically motivated". She alleged that SIR stands for "silent, invisible rigging" which the BJP is using to instill fear among voters.

"If a single eligible voter is removed from the electoral rolls, we will ensure the fall of this BJP government," the chief minister declared to thunderous applause from her supporters.

TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee alleged that the BJP-led central government was using SIR in West Bengal to "intimidate and disenfranchise" voters, and warned of a massive protest in New Delhi.

While the BJP has welcomed the SIR as a step towards ensuring greater transparency in the electoral rolls, the ruling TMC has questioned its timing and intent. TMC leader Derek O'Brien termed the SIR exercise a "con job organised by the Extremely Compromised body".

Leader of Opposition in West Bengal Assembly Suvendu Adhikari also led a BJP rally on the outskirts of Kolkata on Tuesday, demanding that SIR be fully undertaken and every Bangladeshi infiltrator be deported from the country.

"If there is any attack on a Booth Level Officer (BLO) during the enumeration exercise in a locality by TMC party activists, we will not spare the government and party," he said.

Separately, the DMK, in its plea before the Supreme Court against the SIR, has dubbed it a "de facto NRC" and has challenged its constitutional validity. The ruling party in Tamil Nadu has sought the quashing of the EC's notification on SIR dated October 27, 2025.

However, the main opposition, AIADMK, an ally of the BJP, supports the exercise.

In Uttar Pradesh, the exercise was launched under the theme 'Shuddh Nirvachak Namavali – Majboot Loktantra' (Clean Electoral Roll – Strong Democracy).

In Kerala, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has called for an all-party meeting online on Wednesday to seek consensus on the implementation of the SIR. Most political parties in the state -- barring the BJP -- have raised concerns over its timing.

The massive exercise will cover nearly 51 crore electors across 321 districts and 1,843 assembly constituencies of these nine states and three UTs.

The poll authority has pressed into action over 5.3 lakh booth-level officers (BLOs), 10,448 electoral registration officers and 321 district election officers. Besides, 7.64 lakh booth-level agents (BLAs) of political parties are also on the field to assist BLOs. PTI TEAM NAB NAB RT RT RT