Don’t start SIR till end of summer break: BMCchief to EC

Priyanka Kakodkar



Mumbai: BMC commissioner
Ashwini Bhide has written to the Election Commission of India asking it not to
begin the special intensive revision (SIR) of the voter list in Maharashtra
during the summer months as a large chunk of voters may be out of Mumbai for a
vacation.



This was in response to concerns raised by political
parties. “We have just conveyed the requests from political parties during our
interaction with them,” Bhide told TOI.



Officials also said it will be difficult to conduct the
SIR until the census work in the state is concluded since both programmes will
share staff. The house-listing exercise in the first phase of the census will
end on June 16.



Currently, pre-SIR mapping is being conducted in the
state, with names on the current voter list being mapped to the 2002 voter
list. The state electoral office is yet to receive any directive on the rollout
of the SIR in the state.



Samajwadi Party MLA Rais Shaikh said, “During the summer
months, a large number of voters are not in Mumbai because of the vacations,
and even teachers who are involved in conducting the SIR exercise are on
vacation. Census work is also on.”



He also pointed out that there was no urgency to conduct
the exercise in Maharashtra. “There are no elections due for the next two years,
so there is no urgency in conducting the SIR,” Shaikh said.



Earlier in November 2025, Maharashtra’s chief electoral officer
S Chockalingam had written to the EC, pointing out that sufficient time should
be given for the SIR exercise. The letter stated that when it was last
conducted in 2002, the exercise took 13 months.



The SIR programme will be implemented in six phases:
pre-revision mapping, enumeration, preparation of AASD (already enrolled, absent,
shifted, dead) list, publication of draft rolls, claims and objections, and
final publication.

ends