Well-prepared for SIR in Kerala, says Kelkar

Chief Electoral Officer (Kerala) Rathan U. Kelkar said connected Monday that his bureau was well-prepared for the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, with the Election Commission of India (ECI) including Kerala successful the upcoming phase.

Mr. Kelkar told The Hindu that helium volition beryllium holding caller meetings with governmental parties and overseas electors present that determination is clarity with respect to the SIR workout successful Kerala. A gathering with the representatives of governmental parties is scheduled for Wednesday greeting successful Thiruvananthapuram. In September, Mr. Kelkar had held a circular of discussions with some groups.

As per a table-top workout completed by his bureau matching the 2002 SIR electoral rolls — which is the basal database — with the existing 2025 rolls, it has been recovered that 55% of the existent 2.78 crore voters are contiguous connected the 2002 list. “This makes the occupation a small easier,” helium says.

Given that a large interest implicit the Kerala SIR is with respect to overseas electors, Mr. Kelkar says each efforts volition beryllium taken to guarantee afloat enrolment. “Since they each person passports, applying for the SIR volition not beryllium a occupation for them. The lone contented is if their houses present are locked. We volition facilitate their enrolment by drafting up a database to marque definite they are enrolled,” helium says.

Mr. Kelkar’s bureau has besides taken steps to guarantee that unit are not overburdened with duties related to some the SIR and the 2025 section assemblage elections, arsenic an overlap of the 2 exercises is expected. Additional electoral registration officers (ERO) volition beryllium appointed successful each Assembly constituencies arsenic portion of the efforts taken to code imaginable issues faced by officers having dual roles.

“We volition beryllium deploying 2 further EROs per Assembly constituency. We had initially deployed 3 EROs each, and present this fig volition spell up to five. We are besides trying to find radical who bash not person (local body) predetermination work truthful that they tin beryllium deployed for the SIR,” helium says. The CEO’s bureau besides plans to inquire governmental parties to name further booth-level agents to show the advancement connected the SIR.

According to the ECI, Kerala has a small implicit 2.78 crore voters and 24,468 polling stations. As per the ECI schedule, the SIR workout should upwind up by February 7, with the work of the last electoral rolls up of the 2026 Assembly elections.