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What clues reveal that the long awaited Special Intensive Revision may be announced soon and why every Delhi resident from long time voters to recent migrants must prepare for a detailed verification exercise across the city
Delhi officials intensify groundwork for the upcoming SIR.
New Delhi: Delhi appears to be moving swiftly toward the launch of the Special Intensive Revision with multiple layers of groundwork now activated across the capital. Although the Election Commission is yet to issue the formal notification for the city, signs from the administration indicate that the announcement may be close. The Special Intensive Revision is a nationwide exercise first declared in June and rolled out state by state. It began with Bihar due to its assembly election timeline and gradually expanded to nine states and three union territories. Delhi remained outside the initial phases but officials have maintained that remaining regions would follow in due course.
The office of the Chief Electoral Officer has already placed Booth Level Officers in every assembly constituency of Delhi. Training sessions for District Election Officers, Electoral Registration Officers and Assistant Electoral Registration Officers have been completed to bring them up to speed with the extensive procedural requirements of the revision. A crucial step involving the mapping of constituency boundaries has also been finished using the 2002 boundaries as reference. This is significant because the last Special Intensive Revision in Delhi was held over two decades ago and many of the verification checks rely on historic voter records.
Booth Level Officers have begun their on ground outreach even before the formal announcement. They are creating Booth Awareness Groups to interact directly with residents and inform them about the steps they will need to take once the revision begins. Messages shared by some BLOs mention that Delhi is likely to see an announcement soon and request residents to keep specific historical information readily available. According to the CEO office these initiatives are part of routine awareness building but their timing signals a heightened state of readiness.
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Citizens above 40 who have lived in Delhi since before 2002 are being encouraged to locate their entries in the 2002 voter list available on the CEO’s website. This will allow BLOs to cross verify older records when they visit homes during enumeration. Residents who moved to Delhi after 2002 are being asked to check voter lists from their home states for the year in which the last Special Intensive Revision took place there which may be 2002, 2003 or 2005 depending on the state. These details will help the authorities link earlier registration histories with current voter data.
The advisory urges residents to keep these records ready so they can share them with their Booth Level Officer during form distribution and collection. This suggests that the field phase of the revision could start soon after the announcement.
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Several BLOs have mentioned that while the fieldwork is yet to begin officially the preparatory workload has significantly increased. Many say they have been attending training sessions repeatedly and tracing historical voter histories in advance. In states where the Special Intensive Revision is already underway teachers and clerks assigned as BLOs have raised concerns about stress and heavy workload. Such issues are being closely watched in Delhi as the city prepares for its own round of verification.
Parties across Delhi are simultaneously activating their Booth Level Agents. The Aam Aadmi Party reports that its first layer of BLAs has already been trained and registered and the second tier appointments are in progress. These agents are being trained to examine voter documents and spot gaps in registration. The Congress too has completed appointments for its first tier and is in the process of finalising its BLA 2 teams. Its leadership has asked agents to pay particular attention to neighbourhoods with large minority and Dalit populations to ensure accuracy in voter records.
With officials accelerating preparation, BLOs conducting outreach and political parties organising their worker networks Delhi appears to be on the brink of entering the nationwide Special Intensive Revision cycle. Residents are advised to prepare their documents as the coming verification drive is expected to be detailed and exhaustive.
