New Delhi, 2 October

Accused of disenfranchising crores of eligible citizens during the Special Investigative Review (SIR) exercise, the Election Commission has directed its state poll officials to launch a special drive to immediately include "left-out" and new voters in areas where the poll roll revision is complete.

The drive aims to re-enrol eligible voters who were omitted or deleted during the intensive revision, as well as register first-time and “young voters”.

The instructions, conveyed in an official communication issued on Thursday, followed a virtual meeting with state CEOs.

The Commission emphasised that voter registration is an ongoing process and that no eligible citizen should be disenfranchised because they were not included during the SIR enumeration.

Booth Level Officers (BLOs) have been instructed to cross-verify current electoral rolls against pre-SIR lists to identify electors whose names were present previously but dropped from the final roll.

BLOs will conduct house-to-house verifications for all identified missing individuals. Each officer is assigned a target of covering 20 to 25 electors per week, aiming to complete the verification drive within one month.

BLOs will collect Form 6 applications on the spot from newly eligible young electors and genuine left-out voters. Lists will then be shared directly with Booth Level Agents (BLAs) of recognised political parties to maintain transparency.

Opposition parties have accused the EC of working in tandem with the BJP and disenfranchising eligible citizens by holding SIR.

Data shared by the poll authority and its state officials shows that the combined voters' list of nine states and three Union territories has been pruned by 10.2 per cent following the SIR exercise, with over 60 lakh dead voters removed.

The decision to hold a special drive also comes amid reports of differences within the EC over SIR decisions. The EC, however, said it took all SIR decisions unanimously.