Overview
- Booth Level Officers began distributing duplicate enumeration forms across multiple states, including Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Chhattisgarh, with officials in TN citing about 68,700 BLOs and Gujarat deploying 50,963 to cover roughly 5.08 crore voters.
- West Bengal reported early operational data: more than 18 lakh forms distributed by 5 p.m. on day one and 2.46 crore voters (about 32% of the electorate) pre-verified through mapping to the 2002 roll.
- Large street actions marked the launch in Bengal, with CM Mamata Banerjee leading a protest march and the BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari staging a counter rally and meeting the CEO to press for what he called proper execution and action against alleged infiltrators.
- The DMK petitioned the Supreme Court against the SIR in Tamil Nadu, arguing the exercise exceeds the ECI’s authority, functions as a de facto NRC, and introduces procedures not grounded in the Representation of the People Act and the 1960 Rules.
- Senior Congress leader Manish Tewari contended the ECI lacks a mandate for a nationwide SIR under Section 21(3) of the RPA, even as the official timetable proceeds toward draft rolls on December 9, a claims window to January 8, hearings to January 31 and final rolls on February 7, 2026.