Political parties in Kerala raise concerns over Special Intensive Revision (SIR) at meeting called by Chief Electoral Officer, urge ECI to postpone SIR until after the local body polls

Major political parties including the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] and the Congress have expressed serious concern over the timing of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Kerala as well as the plan to use the 2002 SIR rolls as the base document for the upcoming revision.

Majority of the recognised political parties that attended a meeting convened by the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO-Kerala) Rathan U. Kelkar stated that the general sentiment was against holding the SIR in Kerala. They also wanted Mr. Kelkar to urge the Election Commission of India (ECI) to put off the exercise until after the 2025 local body polls and include the ration card as a valid identification document.

A major demand made by the political parties was that the latest rolls or the rolls used for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections should be used as the base document rather than a 23-year-old document.

“Why do voters who already have electoral photo ID cards (EPIC) and their names in the latest rolls and who also have voted in the past five elections again have to fill in enumeration forms?” M.V. Jayarajan of the CPI(M) said, urging the ECI to use the 2024 Lok Sabha poll rolls instead. He also pointed out that a “Bihar model” SIR where lakhs of people faced expulsion from the list, cannot be accepted in Kerala.

P.C. Vishnunadh MLA of the Congress said it was “impractical” to hold the SIR when Kerala was about to be in the thick of the 2025 local body elections. He described the move to use the 2002 electoral rolls as the base documents as “outdated data mapping.” Mr. Vishnunadh also urged the ECI to list the ration cards as a valid identification document for the SIR in Kerala. M. Liju, general secretary, Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) added that the SIR cannot be viewed as a solution to the electoral roll issues related to the addition and deletion of names raised by the Congress party.  

C.P. Cheriya Muhammed, State secretary of the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), K. Raju, a former minister who represented the Communist Party of India (CPI), P.G. Presanna Kumar of the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP), Joy Abraham of the Kerala Congress and K. Anandakumar of Kerala Congress (M) also shared the view that the latest rolls should be used.

Given the huge expatriate Malayali population, including students, political parties also demanded measures to ensure that none of the eligible overseas voters from the State are left out of the voters’ list.

BJP welcomes SIR in State

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) welcomed the SIR, but urged the CEO’s office to ensure that all eligible citizens are included in the list. B. Gopalakrishnan, who represented the BJP, said that having voted in a previous election does not automatically confer citizenship. For that, any individual should fulfil the three conditions set out in the Constitution to be a citizen, he pointed out.

Political parties including the BJP also urged the Commission to clarify the definition of the Malayalam term ‘Kudiyettakkaar.’

Political parties also accused the CEO’s office of not taking them into confidence, observing that meetings on SIR were already convened by Collectors of four districts and the fact that procedures with respect to SIR had been launched in the State before Saturday’s State-level consultation.

Even though the ECI is yet to announce the SIR schedule for Kerala, Mr. Kelkar had chaired the State-level meeting of recognised political parties as part of the efforts to allay concerns. Additional CEO Sharmila C. and senior election officials were present at the meeting.