National News: Before the Bihar Assembly elections, the Election Commission started the SIR campaign, a detailed voter revision drive. It became a political issue and reached the Supreme Court, which approved it but said it could have been done earlier. Now, learning from this, the Election Commission will begin a nationwide SIR in November, starting with states that have elections in 2026, along with a few others in the first phase.
Conference to Assess Readiness
A two-day conference of the Election Commission started on Wednesday. During this, officials assessed the readiness of different states for the SIR process. Reports were presented by the Chief Election Commissioners of all states. The complete plan will be announced at the end of the conference. According to the media report, the SIR process will cover the entire country but will be carried out in stages. The first states to undergo SIR are Assam, Kerala, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu, and West Bengal. This is because elections in these states are scheduled for next year.
Assam’s Special Case
In Assam, the NRC (National Register of Citizens) is also taking place. The Assam Election Commission has said that once the NRC is completed, SIR will be carried out in the state. Assam is the only state in India where NRC has been conducted. Therefore, it is possible that SIR may be slightly delayed in Assam until the NRC process is completed. For the upcoming nationwide SIR, voters will be allowed to submit their details from the final voter list of any state, not just the state they currently live in. This is different from Bihar, where during SIR, voters could only submit entries from Bihar’s final detailed voter list.
Voter List Access Across States
In other words, a migrant worker from West Bengal registered as a voter in Mumbai, Maharashtra, can remain on the list, provided they can show their name. They can also connect with a voter whose name was included in the 2002 final detailed voter list of West Bengal. This voter will continue to be considered eligible in the voter list of the state where they currently live.
