New Delhi [India], November 8 (ANI): Raising serious concerns over the integrity of the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process of electoral rolls in Goa, a delegation of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders met the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Friday.
The delegation was led by senior AAP leader and Goa in-charge Atishi, and included AAP National Secretary Pankaj Gupta and AAP Goa President Amit Palekar.
According to a release from the party, the delegation questioned the “extraordinary urgency” behind conducting the SIR of voter rolls simultaneously with the Zila Parishad elections.
The AAP warned that holding both exercises together will cripple oversight and risk large-scale errors in the electoral roll, with Atishi asking, “How will the SIR process be monitored when all political workers are busy in election campaigning?”
After the meeting, Atishi, Leader of Opposition in the Delhi Assembly, stated that the SIR process in Goa has already begun and that the draft electoral roll is scheduled to be published on December 9. The Zila Panchayat elections are scheduled for December 13, and reservation notifications for those elections were announced on Friday.
She emphasised that once the reservation announcement is made, the Model Code of Conduct will come into force for the Zila Panchayat elections within two to three days, as per the release.
“At a time when elections are underway, the entire political machinery of parties will be fully engaged in the election process and in campaigning. It is natural that political parties will have their own district-level leaders and booth-level agents (BLA) appointed for these campaigns. If party workers are busy with election campaigning, they cannot participate in or monitor the SIR process. This is why it is a matter of grave concern that two processes, the Special Intensive Revision on one hand and the Zila Panchayat elections on the other, are being conducted simultaneously in Goa,” she said.
The AAP leader asked why the Zila Panchayat elections and the SIR could not have been staggered: “The Zila Panchayat election could have been held three weeks later, and the SIR process could have begun three weeks later. Why has this urgency arisen that both the SIR process and the Zila Panchayat elections are being run at the exact same time, placing a single election machinery under immense strain? We raised this issue with the Election Commission.”
Atishi added that the SIR has already commenced in 12 states, including Goa, and acknowledged the Commission’s detailed provisions for dealing with cases of wrongful inclusion in the draft electoral roll. Those wrongly included will receive notices and be asked to produce documentation, and will be thoroughly investigated. However, she highlighted a critical omission in the SIR circulars: there is no clearly spelt-out procedure for those who are wrongly excluded from the draft roll, and that person will have to start the process of registration as a new voter.
“Suppose I am a voter who voted in the last Lok Sabha election and in the recent Zila Panchayat election. How will I know if my name has been omitted from the draft electoral roll? There must be provisions for people whose names have been wrongly excluded of the draft electoral roll. The right to vote is my most fundamental constitutional right. If my name is omitted from the draft electoral roll in this manner, it is the responsibility of a constitutional body like the Election Commission to restore my name and inform me so that I can reclaim my voting right,” Atishi said.
In response to a media query, Atishi said, “We went to the Election Commission to discuss these issues. There was discussion, but no satisfactory explanation was provided for why both processes in Goa are being run together, or why the SIR process is not being implemented under the political parties’ BLAs. The Zila Panchayat election is on 13 December; the SIR could have started on 14 December. What is the rush? Goa’s Assembly election is not until February 2027. Why this sudden hurry to run the SIR at the same time as the Zila Panchayat election? We are worried that running both processes together will prevent adequate monitoring of the SIR.”
Atishi concluded by stating that the AAP will closely scrutinise the draft electoral roll when it is published and will undertake its own checks to ensure that people have not been wrongly removed: “When the draft electoral roll comes out, we will, on our part, properly verify and check whether people’s names have been incorrectly deleted.”
Meanwhile, on behalf of the party, national secretary Pankaj Gupta wrote a letter to Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
The letter reads, “I write to lodge a serious objection to the conduct of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Goa as per ECI letter dated October 27, particularly its timing and its process design. The decision, if not immediately reviewed, runs the risk of excluding large numbers of voters who will have no remedy if their names are omitted from the draft roll. Additionally, the decision, unless reviewed, can jeopardise the free and fair conduct of the Zila Parishad elections scheduled in the same period.”
In the letter, Gupta said that “The SIR process offers no remedy for those whose names are missing from the draft rolls and the SIR guidelines provide a procedure for objections against wrongful inclusion in the draft roll.”
“However, we are deeply concerned that the guidelines provide for no process or clarity for citizens whose names have been excluded from the draft roll altogether. The guidelines state that the list of electors whose names are not included in the draft roll shall be displayed on the notice board and the website. However, the guidelines are silent on the process that a citizen or official should follow to include more names in the draft roll. By not providing any remedy or process for a citizen to demand his/her inclusion in the draft roll, the SIR exercise will put lakhs of citizens at the risk of having their names deleted from the electoral roll,” he added.
The AAP National Secretary further said, “The ECI’s circular even allows Booth Level Officers to mark electors as ‘absent/shifted/dead/duplicate’ based merely on neighbour inquiry, a method ripe for abuse. In a state where families migrate for seasonal work and where tenancy records are often incomplete, this is a blueprint for possible mass deletion, rather than voter verification. The timing of SIR during Zila Parishad elections cripples both democracy and administration.”
“The Zila Parishad elections are slated to be held on December 13. The same Booth Level Officers (BLOs) who are tasked with enumeration in the SIR are also responsible for poll duties. The Election Commission’s own Manual on Electoral Rolls (2023) clarifies that BLOs cannot simultaneously discharge revision and election functions,” he further said.
“To circumvent this, we have been told by your office that a parallel machinery, separate Electoral Registration Officers/Assistant Electoral Registration Officers have been designated by the Election Commission for the purpose of SIR. However, the political machinery involved in the election and the revision remains the same. Booth Level Agents (BLAs), who are the political parties’ recognised watchdogs during roll revisions, are also grassroots workers who campaign and act as polling agents during elections. Expecting them to verify rolls while running campaigns is to manufacture non-participation, effectively eliminating the only public oversight in the revision process. This severely compromises the integrity of the entire process of preparation of SIR,” he added.
In the letter, the AAP leader demanded, “We appeal to Election Commission’s sense of reason, and its constitutional commitment to amend the guidelines and provide for clear remedies for those citizens whose names are excluded from the draft roll; ensure that the SIR exercise and Zila Parishad elections are not conducted at the same time, but one after the other.”
“We strongly believe that our two demands are in the public interest, and would help strengthen our electoral process integrity,” it added. (ANI)
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