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Ranchi, March 12, 2026
If you are a voter in Jharkhand, something important is coming to your door. Literally.
The Election Commission of India is preparing to carry out a Special Intensive Revision, or SIR, of the voter list across the entire state of Jharkhand. On March 12, the Chief Electoral Officer called a meeting with representatives of all recognised political parties in the state to explain what the SIR will involve, what their role in the process is, and what instructions they need to follow before it begins.
The process is set to start in April 2026.
What is a Special Intensive Revision?
A Special Intensive Revision is a thorough, door-to-door exercise to check and update the voter list. It is not a routine update. In a normal update, voters apply to be added or removed. In an SIR, the Election Commission does not wait for people to come to it. Instead, it sends its own workers, called Booth Level Officers or BLOs, to every home in the state. They check who actually lives there, who is registered, who is missing from the list, who has died, who has moved away, and whether there are any duplicate entries.
The goal is simple: every eligible citizen should be on the list, and no one who should not be on the list should remain there.
What will actually happen at your door?
Chief Electoral Officer K. Ravi Kumar explained the process at the March 12 meeting. When BLOs visit homes, they will bring an enumeration form. They will fill it out and collect it themselves, so voters do not have to go anywhere or do anything on their own. After the visit, the BLO will also put a sticker on the door of every home they visit. The sticker will carry two things: the house number and the name and contact number of the BLO assigned to that area. This means any citizen who has a question about their voter registration, or who finds a problem later, can directly contact their BLO using the number on the sticker.
The officer said the core goal is that no eligible citizen should be left out of the voter list. The sticker system is designed to make sure every household has a direct line to the process.
The ASDD list: Dead, moved, duplicate, absent
One of the more important parts of the SIR is the ASDD list. ASDD stands for Absent, Shifted, Dead, and Duplicate. At every polling booth, BLOs will prepare a list of voters who fall into one of these four categories, meaning people who are no longer at the address they are registered at, people who have died, people who appear more than once on the list, or people who have been consistently absent from polling. This list will be verified by the Booth Level Agent, or BLA, from each political party, and then published officially. This is a check-and-balance mechanism where parties have a role in confirming the accuracy of deletions from the list before they happen.
What did the Election Commission ask political parties to do?
The Chief Electoral Officer gave two clear instructions to the party representatives at the meeting.
The first was speed. All recognised political parties must quickly appoint Booth Level Agents at every single polling booth in the state. A BLA is a party-nominated representative who works at the booth level and coordinates with the BLO during the SIR. Without BLAs in place, parties cannot participate meaningfully in the verification process.
The second was training. Once BLAs are appointed, parties must ensure they are trained specifically for the SIR process. The CEO said that if BLAs go into the field without proper training, it creates confusion when they are working alongside BLOs on the ground. Training removes that confusion and makes the whole exercise run more smoothly.
Who was in the room?
The meeting was held at the Election House in Ranchi. Senior election officials present included Joint Chief Electoral Officer Subodh Kumar, Training Nodal Officer Dev Das Datta, and Deputy Electoral Officer Dheeraj Thakur. From the political parties, Congress was represented by Suryakant Shukla, BJP by Rakesh Prasad, and representatives of other recognised parties were also present.
Why does this matter, and why is it controversial?
The SIR in Jharkhand is not without political tension. Congress and JMM have publicly accused BJP of trying to use the Election Commission’s SIR process as a political tool, alleging that the exercise is being designed to target specific communities and remove voters who are not likely to vote for the BJP. The BJP has denied this, and the Election Commission has maintained that the SIR is a neutral, legally mandated exercise.
What the March 12 meeting shows is that the Election Commission is now moving from planning into action. It has briefed political parties, explained the process, answered questions, and given them a clear instruction: appoint your BLAs fast and get them trained.
The SIR begins in April. Between now and then, political parties across Jharkhand need to put their ground-level people in place. For ordinary voters, the message is straightforward: when someone comes to your door carrying an enumeration form and asks about your voter registration, that is the state’s election system doing its job. Talk to them. Make sure your name is on the list.
SOURCE LOG
All facts: SIR voter list revision Jharkhand, March 12 meeting at Election House Ranchi, CEO K. Ravi Kumar presided, recognised political parties meeting, mapping of current voters with last SIR list underway, BLOs to visit every home with enumeration forms, BLOs to collect filled forms, BLO stickers on every door with house number and BLO name and phone, goal no eligible citizen left out, parties must appoint Booth Level Agents at all polling booths urgently, BLA training must be completed, ASDD list (Absent Shifted Dead Duplicate) to be verified by BLA and published, enumeration form/draft publication/ASDD list/notification/hearing process explained, Joint CEO Subodh Kumar present, Nodal Officer Dev Das Datta present, Deputy Electoral Officer Dheeraj Thakur present, Congress represented by Suryakant Shukla, BJP by Rakesh Prasad, SIR starts April 2026, political controversy between Congress-JMM vs BJP:ETV Bharat Jharkhand.
