Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar is hopeful that Telangana will set a benchmark for the country in terms of conduct of Special Intensive Revision (SIR) aimed at purification of electoral rolls.
Citing the recently completed SIR process in Bihar as a benchmark, he said Telangana would enter a new era of electoral administration once the electoral roll purification process is completed. The Chief Election Commissioner who was here on a three-day visit addressed a meeting of the booth level officers (BLOs) on Sunday.
He described the BLOs as backbone of India’s electoral system and that the success of electoral roll purification depended on their diligence and integrity. Their role assumed pre-eminence at a time when the global community closely watched the country’s elections to understand how the world’s largest democracy functioned.
Mr. Gyanesh Kumar referred to the massive SIR exercise conducted in Bihar claiming it was carried out flawlessly, enabling around 75 million voters to participate in the recent Assembly elections. The process recorded zero complaints, zero re-polling and zero recounting, he said congratulating Bihar’s BLOs for setting a high national standard.
The Chief Election Commissioner said Telangana would likewise enter a new era of electoral administration once the SIR was completed. During his interaction with BLOs, the CEC observed that urban voter apathy remained a key reason for lower polling percentages in cities while rural voters had consistently shown the way by turning out enthusiastically and standing in long queues.
He reiterated that elections in the country were conducted strictly in accordance with the law and that all stakeholders were bound to comply with election laws. He recalled that India had recently assumed the chairship of International IDEA, nearly three decades after becoming a member in 1995. This, he said, was a development that reflected the global recognition of the ECI as one of the world’s most credible and innovative election management bodies.
Highlighting the scale of India’s democratic exercise, he said the country had more than 900 million electors spread across 28 states and eight Union Territories.
Earlier, Telangana Chief Electoral Officer C. Sudarshan Reddy explained about the election statistics of the State
Published – December 21, 2025 08:49 pm IST
