SIR process begins in Madhya Pradesh; Congress calls it 'hasty' move, slams poll panel, BJP

Bhopal, Nov 4 (PTI) The Election Commission (EC) on Tuesday launched the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls across the 55 districts of Madhya Pradesh with the Opposition Congress terming it as a "hasty" move.

Deputy Chief Electoral Officer Ram Pratap Singh Jadon told PTI Videos that with the launch of the SIR, the work of updating and verifying the voters list has started in Madhya Pradesh.

For this purpose, one Block Level Officer (BLO) has been deployed at each of the 65,014 polling stations across the state, who will go door-to-door with enumeration forms, he said.

The month-long exercise is aimed at ensuring that all eligible voters are added to the rolls and names of ineligible voters are deleted, The EC has announced the launch of SIR in 12 states, including Madhya Pradesh, from November 4.

Under this initiative, BLOs will go door-to-door to provide voter enumeration forms to voters. The commission has said the campaign has been launched to update the voters list and correct errors.

Jadon said BLOs have begun distributing enumeration forms door-to-door from Tuesday, completing the first of their mandatory three visits to each household. The forms will then be scrutinised, and the draft voters list will be released on December 9.

According to the EC, claims and objections will be accepted until January 8, and after all claims are resolved by January 31, the final voters list will be published on February 7.

Congress MLA and Leader of Opposition in the assembly Umang Singhar claimed the SIR process is being done in a hurry.

He alleged the EC has become a "puppet" of the BJP and is using the SIR as a pretext to further the ruling party's agenda.

State BJP president Hemant Khandelwal rejected the Congress' allegations, saying the EC is working transparently and the Opposition party should welcome the exercise.

He said a workshop was held at the state BJP office in Bhopal regarding the SIR, and booth-level party workers were briefed on preparations.

The objective of the mega exercise was to ensure that names of eligible voters remain on the rolls, while ineligible electors are removed from the list, emphasised Khandelwal. PTI MAS RSY