New Delhi, 26 September—Questioning who was behind the countrywide rollout of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral Congress, Congress Rajya Sabha MP Pawan Khera today contended asking whether it was “Shehanshah or Amit Shah”.
Citing the Election Commission of India’s response to activist Anjali Bharadwaj’s Right to Information (RTI) application, Khera wrote in a post on X (formerly Twitter), “Has the SIR been approved to be conducted across the country? As per the ECI: NO”.
The Congress leader said that Bharadwaj had sought copies of the files through which the Election Commission had approved the decision to initiate the SIR across the country.
The RTI application “went all the way to the First Appellate Authority – the Principal Secretary of the ECI”, Khera said.
“The Commission has so far not taken any decision on initiating a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) across the country in 2025”, Khera wrote, referring to the written response by the EC to Bharadwaj’s RTI application.
The Congress leader questioned where the order approving the nationwide rollout of SIR was.
“There is no order. At least, according to the ECI, no such decision had been taken – and therefore no such record existed”, Khera said.
The Election Commission had rolled out the SIR in three phases, starting with Bihar in Phase- I, followed by Phase-II covering nine states and three Union Territories, while Phase-III covered the remaining 16 states and 3 Union Territories.
The SIR has deleted millions of names from voter lists and added millions of others and has been marked by controversy. This week, investigative reports in The Indian Express revealed that two election commissioners in the three-person poll panel had objected several times to decisions taken in their name.
The Election Commission has been conspicuously silent in face of the allegations, apart from a “press note” that was not signed by any of the election commissioners and source-based anonymous denials in publications seen as pro-government.
Bhardwaj had filed the RTI query following the Bihar SIR announcement in June 2025.
Rights activists, including Bharadwaj, had flagged the SIR procedure as the poll body was actively conducting the exercise on the ground while its response to RTI pleas legally claimed that no overarching institutional decision existed on paper.
Following mass voter deletions in Bihar and Bengal, activists had also challenged the Election Commission’s affidavit before the Supreme Court, in which it claimed that the decision to introduce the SIR in 2025 was based on a comprehensive “independent appraisal”.
RTI responses, however, subsequently indicated that the EC’s internal records contained no files, studies, notings or analytical material related to such an appraisal. The Elction Commission has also not publicised any document.
The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) on Thursday threatened a repeat of its Jantar Mantar agitation, which led to the removal of Dharmendra Pradhan as Union education minister two months back, and a nationwide movement if CEC Kumar doesn’t resign within 48 hours.
The CJP has said the commission should make the underlying records public so that the competing claims can be independently examined.
On Friday, 50-60 protesters, including Bharadwaj, AISA president Neha Bohra, Yogendra Yadav, and Prashant Bhushan, were detained by Delhi police at Jantar Mantar during a protest demanding Kumar’s resignation.
Meanwhile, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray today backed Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) founder bhijit Dipke call for a nationwide protest if Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar did not resign by Saturday. The call came amid a row over the electoral process and the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls following a media report.
On Friday, Dipke announced that he would launch a nationwide from Mumbai if Kumar did not resign by Saturday and expand it to cities across India on October 2. “This Gandhi Jayanti, let’s pledge to save democracy,” he wrote.
The Shiv Sena (UBT) leader backed Dipke’s demand for Kumar’s resignation and said Mumbai “will step out” in large numbers on October 2 against “vote chori”.
Replying to Dipke’s post, he wrote, “If Gyanesh doesn’t go, Mumbai will step out against Vote Chori from 2nd October, in huge numbers!!”
Responding to the Shiv Sena (UBT) leader, the CJP founder thanked him for backing their call to “save democracy”.
“All Indians, irrespective of their political parties or ideologies, must come together against S.I.R,” Dipke posted.
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