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From a softening of tone on citizenship to several procedural changes, the second phase of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) — starting October 28 — in 12 states marks many points of departure from the exercise the Election Commission had notified for Bihar on June 24.
📌 The first major shift comes right at the starting line, the enumeration phase, whose purpose and tone are now entirely different. In Bihar, this phase had triggered anxiety among existing electors registered after 2003, the year the state’s rolls were last revised intensively, as they were asked to furnish documents proving their age and citizenship to stay on the electoral roll. In contrast, the enumeration phase of the nationwide SIR across 12 states focuses on inclusion, not verification. Enumerators have been tasked with tracing existing electors through entries in the last SIR rolls — their own, or those of their parents or even relatives. At this stage, no documents are required, only basic information to establish continuity.
In response, the EC tweaked its approach, directing officers during the claims-and-objections phase to trace as many voters as possible back to the 2003 rolls (even indirectly, by establishing a link through a parent or relative) to reduce the number required to furnish proof of eligibility. That feedback-driven adjustment has now been built into the enumeration phase itself.
📌 The recalibration goes a step further this time. While tracing a link to the last intensively revised electoral roll, the Commission has now allowed existing electors to connect their names to the roll of any state’s last intensive revision and not just the one where they currently reside. Booth Level Officers will now get access to the previous intensive revision rolls of all states, as opposed to the BLOs in Bihar who could only search within their state’s roll.
📌 During the Bihar SIR, electors could submit extracts only from Bihar’s 2003 revision rolls. In other words, a migrant worker from West Bengal who is now registered as a voter in Chennai can continue to remain enrolled in Tamil Nadu if he can show that his name — or that of a parent or relative — appeared in West Bengal’s 2002 electoral roll. Since the last intensive revision there was in 2002, anyone listed on that roll will be presumed eligible to remain on the roll of another state where they now live.
📌 Submission of documents will now be required only for those who did not feature in any (state’s) electoral roll during the last SIR exercise, unlike in Bihar, where most voters registered after 2003 were asked to submit documents. In the second stage of the nation-wide SIR, which is the claims-and-objections phase, notices to prove eligibility will be issued to all such voters. Earlier, these notices went only to those whose inclusion in the draft roll had been challenged, or to electors registered after 2003 who could not produce any of the 11 mandated documents. This time, a much larger set of notices will go out, and the question of their inclusion, based on their ability to furnish documents, will be decided during the hearings.
📌 The Commission’s tone, too, on citizenship checks has softened. From its earlier refrain asserting the EC’s right to verify citizenship as part of determining eligibility, Monday’s announcement marked a clear shift — citizenship remains an eligibility criterion, but was no longer invoked as a central test. Aadhaar, included as the 12th document after the Supreme Court’s intervention in the Bihar SIR, remains on the list for the 12 states and Union Territories.
📌 New applicants, including those who have just turned 18 years, can submit their Form 6, which is the EC’s electoral registration form, along with the SIR declaration form in the enumeration phase. In Bihar, the new electors’ forms were only processed during the claims and objections period, which was after the one-month enumeration period.
📌 Finally, unlike the Bihar exercise, which appeared to have taken both political parties and even the election machinery by surprise, the second phase will begin with meetings between Chief Electoral Officers (CEOs) and political parties in each state. Election officials have been directed to explain the process in detail and involve parties as stakeholders from the outset, which is a marked departure from the limited consultation and short notice that characterised the Bihar drive.
