Well-prepared for SIR in Kerala, says Kelkar

Chief Electoral Officer (Kerala) Rathan U. Kelkar said on Monday that his office was well-prepared for the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, with the Election Commission of India (ECI) including Kerala in the upcoming phase.

Mr. Kelkar told The Hindu that he will be holding fresh meetings with political parties and overseas electors now that there is clarity with respect to the SIR exercise in Kerala. A meeting with the representatives of political parties is scheduled for Wednesday morning in Thiruvananthapuram. In September, Mr. Kelkar had held a round of discussions with both groups.

As per a table-top exercise completed by his office matching the 2002 SIR electoral rolls — which is the base list — with the existing 2025 rolls, it has been found that 55% of the current 2.78 crore voters are present on the 2002 list. “This makes the job a little easier,” he says.

Given that a major concern over the Kerala SIR is with respect to overseas electors, Mr. Kelkar says all efforts will be taken to ensure full enrolment. “Since they all have passports, applying for the SIR will not be a problem for them. The only issue is if their houses here are locked. We will facilitate their enrolment by drawing up a list to make sure they are enrolled,” he says.

Mr. Kelkar’s office has also taken steps to ensure that personnel are not overburdened with duties related to both the SIR and the 2025 local body elections, as an overlap of the two exercises is expected. Additional electoral registration officers (ERO) will be appointed in all Assembly constituencies as part of the efforts taken to address possible issues faced by officers having dual roles.

“We will be deploying two additional EROs per Assembly constituency. We had initially deployed three EROs each, and now this number will go up to five. We are also trying to find people who do not have (local body) election duty so that they can be deployed for the SIR,” he says. The CEO’s office also plans to ask political parties to appoint additional booth-level agents to monitor the progress on the SIR.

According to the ECI, Kerala has a little over 2.78 crore voters and 24,468 polling stations. As per the ECI schedule, the SIR exercise should wind up by February 7, with the publication of the final electoral rolls ahead of the 2026 Assembly elections.