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The Kerala Assembly on Monday unanimously passed a resolution raising strong concerns over the Election Commission of India’s move to conduct a special intensive revision (SIR) of the voter list, with Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan warning that the exercise could be an attempt to push the National Register of Citizens (NRC) through the backdoor.
"The experience in Bihar shows that the SIR process resulted in unjust exclusions. The politics of exclusion is evident there, and there is widespread fear that the same strategy is being pursued nationally," Vijayan said, tabling the resolution.
He pointed out that while the constitutional validity of Bihar’s process is still pending before the Supreme Court, rushing through a similar exercise in states like Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and West Bengal ahead of elections raises serious doubts about the Election Commission’s intentions.
The Chief Minister further argued that such a complex process should involve long-term preparation and consultation.
"To conduct the SIR in a hurried manner is nothing short of malicious, especially when Kerala is on the verge of local body elections and preparing for Assembly polls soon after. This creates suspicion that the aim is to tamper with the people’s mandate," he claimed.
Vijayan also noted that the last intensive revision in Kerala was carried out in 2002, and using that data as a basis for the current revision is "unscientific and unacceptable".
Leader of Opposition V.D. Satheesan supported the resolution, stating that the hurried exercise amounted to disenfranchising genuine voters.
"The right to vote is the foundation of democracy. Any attempt to arbitrarily delete names or create hurdles in the voter list must be resisted. We cannot allow Kerala’s democratic traditions to be undermined by such dubious processes," he said.
The Assembly’s united stance underscored bipartisan concern that the special voter list revision could open the door to large-scale exclusions, undermining both transparency and public trust in the electoral process.