Why Was Assam, Where Assembly Elections Are Due Next Year, Not Included in SIR 2.0?

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Delhi: The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Monday rolled out Phase 2 of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) for 12 States and Union Territories, following the successful completion of a similar exercise in Bihar.The poll body informed that the exercise to update the electoral rolls in these 12 States and UTs will begin from tomorrow, and the existing voter data will be frozen from midnight tonight.According to the Election Commission, Phase 2 of the SIR will be conducted in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Kerala, Lakshadweep, Madhya Pradesh, Puducherry, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal.

These are the States where Assembly elections are due in the next two years. Among them, States like West Bengal and Tamil Nadu will go for Assembly elections next year itself. However, Phase 2 of the SIR does not include Assam, which will also go for Assembly polls next year.

When asked during a press conference about the reason behind not including Assam in the upcoming electoral roll updation exercise, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar responded that Assam has a unique legal provision, as the citizenship rule there is different from the rest of the country. He added that electoral roll revision will be announced separately through a different order."Under India's Citizenship Act, there are separate provisions for Assam. Under the supervision of the Supreme Court, the checking of citizenship there is about to be completed. The 24th SIR order was for the entire country. Under such circumstances, this would not have been applicable to Assam. So, separate orders for revision will be issued for Assam," CEC Gyanesh Kumar said.

Which States and UTs Will Not Participate in SIR 2.0?

India has a total of 28 States and 8 Union Territories. With the electoral role revision is set to be conducted in 12 of them, let's take a look at States and UTs which will not participate in the upcoming SIR exercise.StatesAndhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, MaharashtraManipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Odisha, Punjab, Sikkim, Telangana, Tripura and Uttarakhand.Union TerritoriesChandigarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.Announcing the SIR 2.0, CEC Gyanesh Kumar said that the ongoing voter role revision exercise is the ninth such exercise since Independence, with the last one happening in 2002-04."Phase two of SIR will cover 51 crore voters. While the enumeration process will begin on November 4, the draft rolls will be published on December 9 and final electoral rolls on February 7," the CEC said.With inputs from PTI