EC Holds Closed Door Meeting With CEOs of Poll Bound States
While it is not clear what transpired during the closed door meetings but sources said that the CEOs were told to get ready for the elections in their states and do the base work for Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in these states and the union territory.
New Delhi: The Election Commissioners on Thursday held closed door meetings with the Chief Electoral Officers (CEO) of the states going for polls in 2026. The meeting was held one-on-one during which only the Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and the other two Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi met individually the CEOs of Assam, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Kerala and West Bengal – that will witness assembly polls in 2026.
While it is not clear what transpired during the closed door meetings but sources said that the CEOs were told to get ready for the elections in their states and do the base work for Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in these states and the union territory.
The ECI is expected to announce by next week the schedule for the SIR for these places. The first phase of SIR is expected to begin from November and will have a period of three months to conclude the entire exercise. However, it is learnt that electoral officer of Kerala has conveyed to the ECI about the state machinery’s inability to carry out the SIR due to ensuing local body elections in the state in November. The assembly elections in Kerala is due to be completed by May 2026.
The ECI plans to hold the SIR in phases, beginning with the states going for assembly elections next year. More states may be included in the first phase. At the same time, it will not hold the electoral roll cleanup exercise in states where local body elections are taking place or are due, as the grassroots poll machinery is busy with it and may not be able to focus on SIR, officials said.
The CEOs of all states were in Delhi for the two-day conference with the ECI top brass. The Commission has directed the CEOs to finalise their preparations for the SIR in their respective States/UTs.
ECI officials said after the presentations by senior officers of the Commission on the SIR process, queries raised by the CEOs were clarified. “The Commission assessed the progress made on the directions previously issued to the CEOs to map the current electors with the electors as per the last SIR in the State/UT,” officials added.
The conference was held as a follow up to the SIR preparedness conference held on September 10 during which all the States/UTs gave detailed presentations on the number of electors, qualifying date of last SIR and Electoral Roll in their respective State/UT as per the last completed SIR.
Learning from Bihar experience, the ruling Trinamool Congress in West Bengal has tasked its cadre to accompany the Booth Level Officers (BLOs) when they go for SIR exercise and ensure no voter is excluded from the list.
