SIR: AP chief electoral officer seeks political parties’ cooperation for clean, accurate electoral roll

Vijayawada: Setting the tone ready for special intensive revision (SIR)-2026 exercise, chief electoral officer (CEO) Vivek Yadav has called upon all political parties and citizens to actively cooperate to ensure preparation of clean, accurate and credible electoral rolls. He said that protecting the purity of voter lists is essential for strengthening democracy.Addressing representatives of political parties here on Tuesday, the CEO said the revision exercise is aimed at ensuring inclusion of every eligible Indian citizen in the electoral rolls while removing names of deceased persons, duplicate entries, permanently shifted voters and other ineligible persons.Vivek Yadav said rapid urbanisation, migration for education and employment, and demographic changes over the past two decades have led to several issues in electoral rolls, including continuation of names of deceased voters and multiple registrations of the same individual.He said concerns raised by political parties and public representatives over the quality of voter lists prompted the Election Commission of India to undertake the comprehensive revision exercise. He explained that the SIR-2026 programme in state is being conducted with July 1, 2026, as the qualifying date. Preparatory activities, training and printing of enumeration forms (EFs) will be taken up from June 5 to June 14, while booth level officers (BLOs) will carry out door-to-door distribution and collection of forms from June 15 to July 14. Rationalisation of polling stations will also continue till July 14.The CEO said enumeration forms are being distributed to nearly 4.16 crore electors through 46,397 BLOs. Electoral registration officers (EROs) are issuing partially pre-filled forms based on records available as on May 25, 2026. He clarified that voters whose names already exist in the rolls only need to submit the enumeration form along with an extract of the electoral roll and need not furnish any additional documents. BLOs will issue acknowledgment receipts while collecting the forms and will visit locked houses at least three times.Vivek Yadav said forms are also available on the election commission portal and that booth level agents (BLAs) appointed by political parties can submit up to 50 certified forms per day. An online facility for submission of enumeration forms will also be introduced shortly. The draft electoral roll will be published on July 21, 2026, while claims and objections can be filed between July 21 and August 20. The final electoral roll will be published on September 22 after completion of inquiries and disposal of claims and objections.The CEO clarified that Aadhaar serves only as proof of identity and not as legal proof of citizenship or residence. He assured that no voter’s name would be deleted without proper inquiry and a reasoned order. Special assistance facilities are also being provided to elderly persons, persons with disabilities, the sick and economically weaker sections.Representatives who attended the meeting included P Ashok Babu, Koneru Suresh and K Rajasekhar from TDP; E Sambasiva Pratap from Jana Sena Party; P Venkatramaiah (Nani), L Appireddy, Srikanth Reddy, ANN Murthy and N Chandrasekhar Reddy from YSRCP; Nagothu Ramesh Naidu, V Srinivasa Raju and Venna Hemanth from BJP; Dr T Seva Kumar and A Balaji Reddy from AAP; and Y Venkateswara Rao and J Jayaram from CPI(M). Additional CEO A Venkateswara Rao, Assistant CEO G Srinivasa Rao and other officials were also present.