Chandigarh, October 3
Former Special Chief Secretary, Government of Punjab, KBS Sidhu has raised questions over the Election Commission of India’s (ECI) decision to launch a nationwide special drive to identify and enrol voters who may have been left out of the electoral rolls following the Special Intensive Revision (SIR).
Addressing Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, Sidhu said the fresh ECI exercise could be viewed as an acknowledgement of concerns he had repeatedly raised about possible wrongful deletions during the SIR process. The ECI, however, has described the exercise as a special enrolment drive for left-out and first-time or young eligible electors after completion of SIR.
ECI directs BLOs to trace missing electors
According to the ECI communication dated October 1, Booth Level Officers (BLOs) have been directed to compare the current electoral rolls with pre-SIR rolls and identify voters whose names appeared earlier but are missing from the latest rolls.
The BLOs will conduct house-to-house visits to verify the status of such electors and facilitate enrolment through Form 6 wherever they are found eligible. The exercise is expected to cover around 20–25 electors per week and be completed in about a month.
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The Commission has also directed officials to identify and assist other left-out, first-time and young eligible voters. Lists prepared during the exercise will be shared with Booth Level Agents of recognised political parties, while Form 6 applications and verification reports will be submitted to the concerned Electoral Registration Officers.
Special booth-level camps will also be organised, including for people living in night shelters, labour colonies, homeless persons and other marginalised groups.
Sidhu says concerns were raised earlier
Sidhu, who is the Founder-Editor of The KBS Chronicle, said he had repeatedly raised concerns about the possibility of eligible voters being left out during the SIR process through a series of columns published during 2025 and 2026.
In his latest column, “Mr Gyanesh Kumar, I Told You So… But You Marked It as SPAM,” published on October 2, he linked the new ECI exercise to his earlier warnings. He argued that the Commission’s latest initiative addresses the consequences of missing names but does not, in his view, resolve the underlying issues that he says contributed to the deletions.
Sidhu specifically identified three concerns: the absence of a clear solution to the legacy data-linkage issue, no stated audit of the mechanism used to identify “logical discrepancies,” and the limited time available before the next round of state elections, including Punjab’s expected 2027 Assembly polls.
Sidhu raises constitutional concerns
Sidhu also invoked Article 324 of the Constitution, which deals with the powers of the Election Commission, and referred to Supreme Court judgments concerning the multi-member structure and functioning of the Commission.
He argued that the Commission’s constitutional authority should be accompanied by institutional accountability and safeguards for voters. These are Sidhu’s legal and constitutional interpretations rather than findings established by the ECI.
“Article 324 gives the Election Commission plenary power over India’s elections. It does not give it a monopoly on wisdom, or a licence for institutional arrogance,”
Sidhu said.
Advice to voters
Sidhu also urged citizens to remain prepared during the special drive. He said voters whose names appeared on earlier electoral rolls should keep their identity and address documents available, while first-time voters should provide accurate address details while applying for enrolment.
The ECI has reiterated that voter enrolment is a continuous process and that eligible citizens whose names are not on the electoral roll can apply for enrolment at any time.
Sidhu further cited Article 326, arguing that universal adult suffrage is a fundamental constitutional principle and that eligible citizens should not be excluded because of what he described as questionable mapping criteria.
The ECI’s special drive is now being implemented in states and Union Territories where the SIR process has been completed, with officials tasked with tracing left-out electors and facilitating their enrolment under the applicable electoral laws and rules.
