Congress leaders say SIR a suspect, but Karnataka govt unlikely to oppose it

The Congress leaders in Karnataka are increasingly linking the Trinamool Congress’ defeat in West Bengal to large-scale voter deletions during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.

Yet, the Siddaramaiah-led Congress government has steered clear from formally opposing the contentious exercise in the state.

The Cabinet has reviewed the pre-SIR exercise and its implications in the last six to seven meetings. However, no decision has been taken either to oppose the proposed revision or to seek a complete overhaul of the process, as demanded by some citizens’ groups.

A coalition of social activists and organisations has called for electoral rolls to be publicly displayed at gram panchayat and ward levels for corrections, and for the revision and appeal window to be extended from three months to six months, besides challenging it in Supreme Court.

Siddaramaiah said the defeat of the TMC could have been caused by anti-incumbency or even by deletion of voters’ names during SIR.

“My government will not allow genuine voters in Karnataka to be targeted and any revision must be carried out impartially”.

Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Minister Priyank Kharge alleged that a “logical discrepancy” category was used in Bengal to remove 27 lakh names from electoral rolls.

“In 50 seats in Bengal, SIR deletions exceeded the victory margin and more than half of those were won by BJP. The SIR was just one part. The broader playbook is what needs attention,” charged Kharge.

Labour Minister Santosh Lad dared the Centre to link Aadhaar with voter identity cards to eliminate duplication instead of conducting what he described as a suspect exercise.

The chief electoral officer has been apprising the Cabinet on pre-SIR voter mapping and the schedule.

Karnataka had 3.55 crore voters in the 2002 rolls and 5.57 crore in the 2025 rolls.

Once SIR is announced, recognised parties will be consulted, weekly updates on claims and objections will be published through ECINet and forms 6, 6A, 7 and 8, along with draft and final rolls, will be put online.

Even as the government acknowledges that SIR could be notified any time, the Congress has started ground work to independently “map” voters in every Assembly constituency by appointing block level agents and a huge volunteer base to assist voters once SIR is launched.