CHIEF Minister Devendra Fadnavis has welcomed the possibility of the Election Commission of India (ECI) launching a nationwide Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. The announcement comes just days before Opposition parties in Maharashtra plan to hold a protest rally (on November 1), over alleged errors in the state’s voter list.
According to media reports, the ECI is likely to hold a media interaction in Delhi on October 27. While the subject of the conference has not been revealed, reports from the capital suggest that the ECI is likely to announce a nationwide SIR in a phased manner.
Reacting to the development, Fadnavis said, “We have been demanding, for a long time, that SIR drives be conducted across the nation. We welcome the ECI’s move to implement this.”
On November 1, the entire Opposition has called for a protest rally against the EC for ignoring their demands to rectify the voters’ lists and postpone the local body elections till errors are fixed. However, in areas where local body elections are already scheduled, a revision in electoral rolls will be done only after the elections.
The Supreme Court has set January 31, 2026, as a deadline for conducting local body elections across the state.
Now that the ECI is likely to announce the SIR, the move is likely to take the wind out of the Opposition’s planned protest rally in Mumbai. Speaking about the rally, Fadnavis said, “The Opposition has lost confidence and knows it is heading for defeat. That is why the rally has been organised to divert attention and find some reason to blame for their loss.”
