Overview
- The DMK adopted four resolutions Saturday calling for Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar’s removal, the complete scrapping of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), a return to paper ballots and a petition to the President.
- The Congress has demanded immediate suspension of the SIR and the CEC’s removal, saying the Commission’s actions have put millions of voters at risk and noting the ECI’s recent order to provide searchable voter rolls to parties.
- The Election Commission ordered that draft and final rolls be shared in readable/searchable format, and Maharashtra’s chief electoral officer has proposed changing Form 6 so voters removed in the SIR can apply for re‑inclusion without declaring themselves first‑time registrants.
- Student groups and activists have pledged sustained peaceful nationwide protests and smaller organisations such as the Karnataka Rajya Dalit Sangharsha Samiti have staged demonstrations and submitted memoranda seeking criminal cases and a halt to the SIR.
- The dispute traces to large deletions first reported in Bihar in 2025, has left lakhs of appeals pending before tribunals, and is politically split with West Bengal’s BJP defending the CEC and calling for a fresh SIR while opposition parties press for roll reversals before the final lists are used in early‑2027 elections.