NewKerala.com

Madhya Pradesh's SIR Drive: Why Political Parties Are Watching Closely

The Election Commission has launched the Special Intensive Revision drive across Madhya Pradesh's 55 districts. Over 65,000 trained Booth Level Officers are conducting door-to-door verification without demanding documents from voters. Both BJP and Congress have established monitoring teams to closely watch the electoral roll exercise. This comes after the first SIR phase in Bihar saw over 68 lakh names removed from voter lists.

Key Points: MP SIR Electoral Roll Verification Begins Amid Political Scrutiny

  • Over 65,000 Booth Level Officers trained for door-to-door voter verification across MP's 230 Assembly seats
  • Congress forms eight-member committee led by Sajjan Singh Verma to monitor SIR process
  • BJP conducts training camp for party workers at Bhopal headquarters with state chief Hemant Khandelwal
  • Voter lists frozen since October 27, requiring BLO verification for any new changes
  • Documents only collected when voter records don't match existing database information
  • SIR covers 12 states including Gujarat, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal
3 min read

SIR drive begins in MP, political parties keep a close watch on exercise

Election Commission launches Special Intensive Revision drive in Madhya Pradesh with 65,000 BLOs conducting door-to-door verification as BJP and Congress monitor closely.

"BLOs will not seek any documents from eligible voters; they are supposed to just distribute forms and record information - Sanjeev Jha, Madhya Pradesh CEO"

Bhopal, Nov 4

The Special Intensive Revision (SIR), a much-debated exercise for the verification of electoral rolls being conducted by the Election Commission of India (ECI), officially began in Madhya Pradesh on Tuesday.

After getting training, over 65,000 BLOs (Booth Level Officers), who have been tasked with conducting a door-to-door visit for verification of voters, have started reaching their assigned booths.

Madhya Pradesh has a total of 230 Assembly seats and 29 Lok Sabha constituencies spread across the 55 districts, divided into six divisions such as Bhopal, Gwalior, Indore, Jabalpur, Chambal, Narmadapuram, Rewa, Sagar, Shahdol, and Ujjain.

The voter list in Madhya Pradesh was already frozen after the ECI on October 27 announced the SIR in the state, which means no new changes can be made without verification from the BLO appointed by the ECI.

Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Madhya Pradesh, Sanjeev Jha, has instructed district collectors, commissioner and other senior officials to monitor the SIR process closely and ensure that not a single eligible electorate is missed from verification.

Sanjeev Jha has shared that the BLOs will not seek any documents from eligible voters; they are supposed to just distribute forms and record the information received during door-to-door visits.

However, the CEO also clarified that BLOs will only collect documents in case the voter's record does not match the earlier database. In such cases, the Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) will issue a notice to seek documents separately.

Meanwhile, the political parties, especially the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the opposition Congress, have also set up their own teams to keep a close watch during the exercise in Madhya Pradesh.

State Congress has formed an eight-member committee, comprising former minister Sajjan Singh Verma as chairman and seven members, including JP Dhanopia, Sanjay Kale, Rajeev Singh and Shailendra Patel.

On the other hand, the state BJP on Tuesday was scheduled to hold a camp to provide training for party workers assigned for the job for SIR. State BJP chief Hemant Khandelwal and Joint National Secretary will be addressing the training session at the party headquarters in Bhopal.

Notably, the ECI has announced phase two of the SIR in 12 States and Union Territories. Apart from Madhya Pradesh, the 11 States and UTs are Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Kerala, Puducherry, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal.

The first phase of the SIR was held in Bihar, following which more than 68 lakh names were deleted from the electoral rolls.

- IANS

Share this article:

Reader Comments

R
Rohit P
Good that BLOs won't ask for documents unnecessarily. Many poor people don't have proper documents but are genuine voters. This approach is voter-friendly. 👍
S
Sarah B
Both parties watching closely shows how important this process is. Hope the Election Commission ensures complete transparency. Democracy depends on accurate voter lists!
A
Arjun K
68 lakh names deleted in Bihar? That's huge! Hope MP's revision is equally thorough. We need to ensure only genuine voters remain on the list. Jai Hind! 🇮🇳
M
Michael C
While the intention is good, I hope this doesn't become another bureaucratic exercise. Sometimes these verification drives miss genuine voters living in remote areas.
N
Nisha Z
My uncle is a BLO in Indore division. They've been trained well but the workload is massive. Hope people cooperate with them during door-to-door visits. 🤝
K
Karthik V
Political parties forming committees to monitor this shows they take it seriously. But hope they don't interfere in the actual verification process. Let ECI do their job professionally.

We welcome thoughtful discussions from our readers. Please keep comments respectful and on-topic.

Leave a Comment

Minimum 50 characters 0/50