Congress flays Election Commission over Special Intensive Revision

Congress alleged that the EC has discarded the methodology used during Bihar SIR in the second phase of the exercise in 12 state and union territories.

New Delhi: The Congress on Tuesday questioned the Election Commission over “frequent” changes being made in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) and asked it to make public whether it is using the de-duplication software to identify duplicate voters, which it had discarded in Bihar, during the second phase of the exercise.

The demand came on a day West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee claimed in a rally in Bankura that the SIR is a “huge scam” being conducted with the help of Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Congress National War Room head and senior MP Sasikanth Senthil alleged that the EC is acting without transparency while its actions on the SIR is confusing, as it has discarded the methodology used during Bihar SIR in the second phase of the exercise in 12 state and union territories.

He said a de-duplication software was used to identify duplicate voter entries and flag them to the field staff. “If a person was found to be registered in more than one booth or district, the software flagged the match, after which the BLO conducted ground verification to check ordinary residence,” he said.

“This software was run repeatedly, during every annual revision, with the EC sending lists to DEOs for re-verification. The same system was followed even before the Lok Sabha elections in 2023. However, the entire Bihar SIR was done without de-duplication software, claiming the software was not good,” he said.

Citing a media report, he said the Bihar voter list still contains around 14.5 lakh duplicate entries. He said EC’s sudden change in stance on a process it had praised until 2023 is “deeply concerning”.

Expressing fear that 10-15 per cent of genuine voters may not find a place in the final voter list in the second phase of SIR, Senthil also claimed that the EC is continuously changing rules and the “most poorest and the most underprivileged” will be affected.

He said the EC should come out clean on whether they were using de-duplication software or any new software for finding duplicate voters. He also asked why the official Apps used by Booth Level Officers were being updated with new protocols frequently.

The Tiruvallur MP said while the software was used in 2023, it was discarded for the Bihar SIR.

“The EC needs to come out with proper reasons for why this has happened. While BLO’s Apps are showing duplicate voters, there is no protocol by the EC on what to do with the information…They are arbitrarily doing things in contradiction to what they did earlier,” he told a press conference.

Asking how the EC can function like this, he said the poll body functions with proper written instructions. “This is an extremely strange way of working. This is confusing, not transparent. It is giving huge space for doubt. What is the algorithm they are using? Is the de-duplication software back?” he said.