National News: Before the Bihar Assembly elections, the Election Commission started the SIR campaign, a detailed voter revision drive. It became a political issue and reached the Supreme Court, which tried it but said it could have been washed-up earlier. Now, learning from this, the Election Commission will uncork a nationwide SIR in November, starting with states that have elections in 2026, withal with a few others in the first phase.
Conference to Assess Readiness
A two-day priming of the Election Commission started on Wednesday. During this, officials assessed the readiness of variegated states for the SIR process. Reports were presented by the Chief Election Commissioners of all states. The well-constructed plan will be spoken at the end of the conference. According to the media report, the SIR process will imbricate the unshortened country but will be carried out in stages. The first states to undergo SIR are Assam, Kerala, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu, and West Bengal. This is considering elections in these states are scheduled for next year.
Assam’s Special Case
In Assam, the NRC (National Register of Citizens) is moreover taking place. The Assam Election Commission has said that once the NRC is completed, SIR will be carried out in the state. Assam is the only state in India where NRC has been conducted. Therefore, it is possible that SIR may be slightly elapsed in Assam until the NRC process is completed. For the upcoming nationwide SIR, voters will be unliable to submit their details from the final voter list of any state, not just the state they currently live in. This is variegated from Bihar, where during SIR, voters could only submit entries from Bihar’s final detailed voter list.
Voter List Access Across States
In other words, a migrant worker from West Bengal registered as a voter in Mumbai, Maharashtra, can remain on the list, provided they can show their name. They can moreover connect with a voter whose name was included in the 2002 final detailed voter list of West Bengal. This voter will protract to be considered eligible in the voter list of the state where they currently live.
