Political parties on Monday expressed concern over the large number of voters listed as ’absentee, shifted or dead’ (ASD) in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls, even as Chief Electoral Officer (Kerala) Rathan U. Kelkar stated that the ASD list will shortly be uploaded online in a searchable format for public scrutiny.
Described as ‘uncollectable enumeration forms’ by the Election Commission of India (EC), this list had grown to a little over 25 lakh names by Monday morning. They include 6.44 lakh deceased, 7.11 lakh categorised as untraceable, 8.19 lakh permanently shifted/absent voters, 1.31 lakh duplicated names and 1.93 lakh in the ‘others’ category which include people who have refused to return the forms.
Mr. Kelkar said the booth-wise details of all the 25 lakh people, their names and EPIC numbers included, were expected to be uploaded on the district-level websites by Monday evening or Tuesday. With the enumeration phase of SIR set to end on December 18, the list had sparked heated debate in the weekly meeting of political parties chaired by Mr. Kelkar here on Monday.
A district-wise break-up shows Thiruvananthapuram as having the highest number of uncollectable forms (4.36 lakh) followed by Ernakulam (3.34 lakh).
Representatives of the CPI(M), Congress, CPI, IUML, Kerala Congress, Kerala Congress (M) and RSP demanded that the ASD list be published online and made available to them for verification. They pointed out that the number has increased by over 5 lakh since the last meeting on December 6. It was argued that if the SIR was indeed efficiently conducted, the total number should have decreased. They demanded that the booth and Assembly segment-wise list should be published urgently for verification to prove that the SIR process is truly inclusive.
“At the December 6 meeting, the list had only 20 lakh names in it. It is important that the names in the ASD list are published urgently,” senior CPI(M) leader M.V. Jayarajan who represented his party at Monday’s meeting said. M.K. Rahman of the Congress urged Mr. Kelkar to request the EC to grant Kerala more time to verify the names in the ASD list. CPI leader Sathyan Mokeri and IUML State secretary Mohammed Shah questioned the criteria used by the election officials to report somebody as dead. “It is a serious matter even if one individual has been wrongly listed as deceased,” he said.
The BJP urged the EC to ensure that notices issued to voters during the verification phase should clearly state the reasons. J.R. Padmakumar, representing the BJP, said the names of no individual should be deleted without a proper personal hearing.
Mr. Kelkar said that the enumeration forms have been distributed to all 2.78 crore voters who were in electoral rolls as on October 27, 2025. In all, 99.7% of the forms have been returned and digitised, according to him. Meetings between EC-appointed booth-level officers (BLO) and booth-level agents (BLA) of the political parties, where the ASD lists are being discussed, were expected to be completed by Monday.
As per the revised SIR schedule, the enumeration phase will end on December 18. The draft voter roll will be published on December 23. The period for filing claims and objections last from December 23 to January 22, 2026. The notice phase (hearings and verification) is from December 23 to February 14. The final rolls will be published on February 21. The Congress has demanded that the CEO conduct the weekly review meetings with political parties until the publication of the final rolls.
Published – December 15, 2025 05:37 pm IST
