Kerala CEO urges Election Commission to defer voter list revision

Kerala’s Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) has asked the Election Commission of India (ECI) to postpone the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the state’s voters’ list, citing the upcoming local body elections.

Officials from the CEO’s office said that the CEO had held a meeting with representatives of political parties on Saturday as a precursor to commencing the Special Intensive Revision of the voters’ list. They explained that, at the meeting, representatives of both ruling and Opposition parties in the state had demanded that the SIR be postponed, considering the local body elections. Hence, the CEO of Kerala had urged the Election Commission of India to postpone the SIR in the state.

Political parties in Kerala are preparing for local body elections, as the current councils will complete their five-year term in December. The next Assembly election in the state is scheduled for April-May 2026.

Although the Election Commission has not announced the nationwide schedule for SIR, Kerala’s CEO had already begun preparations. These included launching the campaign “Stay ready, SIR is coming” and holding consultations with political parties.

The last SIR in the state was conducted in 2002. This time, both the ruling Left Front and the Congress-led Opposition alliance opposed the revision exercise, while the BJP did not object.

Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee general secretary M Liju, who attended the all-party meeting with Congress MLA P C Vishnunadh, raised concerns that if the 2002 electoral roll was taken as the base, around 50 lakh voters would face the threat of removal from the voters’ list. He pointed out that this would amount to around 20,000 voters in an Assembly constituency. Hence, he said, they had opposed conducting the SIR.

He added that the timing was unworkable, explaining that it would be impractical to conduct the process ahead of the local body elections. According to him, the focus was currently on the local body polls, and verifying voters required the participation of political party representatives. Since political workers in Kerala were already engaged in the election process, he argued that revising the electoral roll at this stage would be impractical.