After Bihar, Election Commission is busy preparing for SIR across the country, states have been instructed to prepare by September 30

News Topical, Digital Desk : After the allegations of irregularities in the voter list, the Election Commission has now planned a special intensive revision (SIR) of the voter list across the country after Bihar. In this regard, the Commission has instructed all the states and union territories except Bihar to complete all the preparations related to SIR before 30 September. In which the work of training of Booth Level Officers (BLOs) and appointment of Booth Level Agents (BLAs) associated with political parties etc. has to be completed.

Earlier, the Commission had also held a meeting on this issue with the Chief Electoral Officers of all these states and union territories. The Commission has set this deadline for the preparations related to SIR at a time when the work of SIR already going on in Bihar is being completed on 30 September. Under this, the publication of the final voter list is also going to be done on 30 September. It is believed that only after this the Election Commission will announce SIR simultaneously across the country.

SIR may be announced nationwide in October

It is more likely that its announcement will be made in the week after October. However, the commission was earlier planning to conduct SIR in a phased manner in those states where assembly elections are to be held next year. But after questions were raised on it by the opposition parties and allegations of targeting only opposition states, it has planned to start it simultaneously in the whole country.

It is difficult to make the voter list error-free without taking political parties along

According to senior officials of the Commission, this SIR which is being started across the country will be completed by May 2026. Anyway, after the issue of Bihar SIR reached the Supreme Court, everything has become clear. In such a situation, there is less possibility of a Bihar-like atmosphere being created regarding SIR. Meanwhile, the Commission has directed all the states and union territories to hold meetings with the officials of political parties at the state and district level and discuss with the Booth Level Agents (BLAs) associated with the political parties. Recently, in a meeting with the Chief Electoral Officers of the states, the Commission also clearly said that it is difficult to make the voter list error-free without taking the political parties along.

States given training to deal with AI-deepfake and fake narratives

Before starting SIR across the country, the Election Commission has alerted all states and union territories about the use of fake narratives like Bihar and AI-deepfakes etc. Along with this, the officials associated with the media department of the commission in all these states have been given training. In which it has been asked to form a team for this at the district level and to be prepared to immediately counter any kind of fake narrative spread about SIR. During this, training has been given on the use of free apps like Google Reverse Image. A presentation was given by Bihar during this time, in which a claim was made to give factual answers.

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