Election Commission likely to push back SIR deadline for UP, Bengal, other states
The matter will be formally decided Thursday, when the Commission reviews state-wise progress on digitisation and submission of enumeration forms, they said.
New Delhi: The Election Commission is likely to push back the deadline for the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and several other States, senior officials told Hindustan Times. The matter will be formally decided today [Thursday], when the Commission reviews state-wise progress on digitisation and submission of enumeration forms, they said.
Officials confirmed that West Bengal is among the states where additional time is being actively considered. The poll body has already granted Kerala an extension until 18 December, revising the earlier cut-off of 11 December after the state flagged the need for more time.
The prospect of further extensions follows sustained objections from several Opposition parties, which have accused the EC of pressing ahead with an “untenable” and “compressed” exercise. At an all-party interaction last week, the Congress, Trinamool Congress (TMC), CPI(M) and Samajwadi Party (SP) said the accelerated timeline did not reflect on-ground conditions and had placed unreasonable pressure on Booth Level Officers (BLOs) as well as voters.
The TMC said the anticipated extension underscored its repeated warnings that the roll-out had been rushed. Senior leader Joyprakash Majumdar reiterated the party’s allegation that around 40 people, including BLOs, had died in West Bengal due to stress induced by the revision workload, arguing that the process required a “complete rethink.”
In Uttar Pradesh, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav called the SIR a “major burden,” pointing out that verifying nearly 160 million electors in a month was unrealistic and had disrupted routine administrative functioning.
Fresh data compiled by the EC shows that with only a day left before the current deadline, 508 million Enumeration Forms have been digitised, while 2.3 million remain pending. Since Phase II of the SIR began on 4 November, a total of 509 million forms have been issued across participating states and Union Territories.
Kerala has digitised 27.4 million forms—about 98.5%—prompting its deadline extension earlier this week. Across the 12 states and UTs in Phase II, the number of electors as of 27 October stood at 509 million. Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, Madhya Pradesh and Puducherry have completed digitisation, while all other participating states have crossed 99%, barring Kerala.
A formal notification on deadline extensions for additional states is expected after the commission’s meeting today.
