The Enumeration Phase of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls kicked off on Sunday across Odisha, Mizoram, Sikkim, and Manipur.
These four states are part of the third phase of the SIR exercise, which the Election Commission of India (ECI) has mandated across a total of 16 states and three Union Territories.
The ECI said that any eligible voter whose Enumeration Form reaches the Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) by June 28 will see their name added to the upcoming Draft Electoral Rolls.
For voters who happen to miss June 28 deadline to submit their Enumeration Forms, there is a backup option – they can submit Form 6 along with a mandatory Declaration Form during the subsequent claims and objections window.
During the Enumeration Phase, Booth Level Officers (BLOs) will be going door-to-door to personally hand out Enumeration Forms to all registered voters. Citizens have the flexibility to hand their completed paperwork back to their local BLO or simply submit it online.
The Election Commission emphasized that BLOs will meticulously check every household to distribute, collect, and verify these crucial forms to ensure nobody is missed.
During house-to-house enumeration, BLOs will carry at least 30 blank Form 6 along with blank Declaration Forms, for anyone who seeks to enrol as a new elector.
With a view to ensuring more involvement of political parties, the Commission has allowed Booth Level Agents (BLAs) of recognised political parties to collect from the public, up to 50 forms a day and hand it over to the BLO before the Draft Publication.
The poll body added that both national and state-recognized political parties are encouraged to deploy additional BLAs to support the BLOs, aiming for a seamless and highly effective SIR process.
According to the ECI, the main objective of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) is “No eligible citizen is left out, while no ineligible person is included in the Electoral Roll. Every person who is a citizen of India and who is not less than eighteen years of age on the qualifying date and is not otherwise disqualified under any law shall be entitled to be registered in the electoral roll.”
Currently, there are 3,34,14,856 electors in Odisha, 8,75,008 in Mizoram, 4,71,077 in Sikkim and 20,92,140 in Manipur.
The Draft Roll will be published on July 5, with the claims and objections period extending to August 4. The final rolls will be published on September 6.
