EC orders SSR now to boost voter enrolment in 17 states
In Short
The states covered by this summary revision include West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Bihar and Tamil Nadu, with January 1, 2027, as the qualifying date for those meant to be included.
Share :
EC orders SSR now to boost voter enrolment in 17 states
New Delhi: The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Thursday ordered a Special Summary Revision (SSR) of electoral rolls in 17 states and Union Territories, focused on including new voters and those left out by the controversial Special Intensive Revision (SIR), amid a raging controversy over the SIR. The states covered by this summary revision include West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Bihar and Tamil Nadu, with January 1, 2027, as the qualifying date for those meant to be included.
Draft rolls will be published on November 12 and final rolls on January 4, 2027. UP and Punjab are to go to the polls by February 2027.
The order comes amid continuing protests over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. Opposition parties have raised concerns about the deletion of names during the exercise, and one point of dispute has been the additional declaration that applicants had to submit with Form 6 while SIR was underway. That declaration, one of the issues at the centre of the row, wanted applicants to map their parents to the last SIR, held about 20 years ago, just as existing voters had to under the SIR. The Opposition, INDIA bloc parties, and the youth group Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) are protesting in the national capital and have demanded the removal of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
The order on Thursday, referred to the instructions issued by the EC to its state officials on September 29 "to undertake a special drive for the enrolment of left out/young/first time eligible electors". The states and UTs covered are Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Kerala, Lakshadweep, Madhya Pradesh, Manipur, Puducherry, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and West Bengal.
Claims for inclusion are to be made in Form 6, the order says. It makes no reference to the additional SIR declaration.
In an October 7 clarification, the commission had said the declaration was an additional document used only in states and UTs where SIR is being conducted. It said the ordinary forms prescribed under the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, apply in the non-SIR period.
