TDP tells EC to explicitly communicate SIR not related to citizenship, flags Bihar timing

The Telugu Desam Party (TDP), the biggest ally of Bharatiya Janata Party-led NDA at the Centre, has urged the Election Commission (EC)to clearly define the purpose of Special Intensive Revision (SIR) and be limited to electoral roll correction and inclusion. The EC’s SIR exercise in poll-bound Bihar has created a political storm as the matter has reached the Supreme Court.

The TDP said citizens must be told that the exercise was not related to citizenship verification. The remarks from the TDP amidst the controversy clearly showed that it wanted the EC to revisit the modalities of the SIR of the electoral roll. Also, it flagged the timing of the exercise.

“The SIR’s purpose must be clearly defined and limited to electoral-roll correction and inclusion. It should be explicitly communicated that the exercise is not related to citizenship verification, and any field instructions must reflect this distinction,” said the party’s submission under the sub-head “clarifying the scope of SIR”.
The party has urged the EC not to hold the SIR of electoral rolls in Andhra Pradesh within six months of a major poll. It added that voters already enrolled in the latest roll should not be required to re-establish their eligibility unless specific and verifiable reasons are recorded.

As per the SIR, prospective voters who were not enrolled in Bihar in 2003 have been asked to submit one of the 11 documents listed by the EC, which has excluded Aadhaar, voter ID and ration card. The Supreme Court has asked the EC to consider including these three cards in the list of documents as proof.

The Assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh are due in April 2029. The TDP has asked the EC to start the exercise in the state “as early as possible” and stated that the SIR provides a valuable opportunity to ensure that the electoral rolls are updated in a fair, inclusive and transparent manner.

The party also called for annual third-party audits under the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) to identify anomalies, use of AI-driven tools to flag issues like duplication in real time, ensuring a time-bound grievance-redressal mechanism at the local level and having standardised door numbers nationwide as a policy to strengthen electoral-roll verification.

The TDP advocated using Aadhaar for the rectification of duplicate EPIC numbers (voter card), expediting the issuance of unique, non-repeating EPIC numbers nationwide and replacing the ink-based verification process with a biometric model.

With inputs from PTI