The Maharashtra Congress on Thursday said since no elections were scheduled in the state for the next few years, the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) should have a timeline of one and a half to two years to ensure accuracy, as the previous SIR process in 2002-03 had lasted for 13 months.

A delegation led by state Congress president Harshwardhan Sapkal pointed out that the voter base in the state has grown by 3.5 crore over the last 25 years and hence the Election Commission should not to rush the process within two–three months. The delegation submitted a memorandum of demands to the state CEO.

“Since there are no elections in Maharashtra in the next 2–3 years, there will be no objection if the process takes one-and-a-half to two years. Providing adequate time will ensure there is no suspicion among the public. The census and the SIR should not be conducted by the same officials or staff at the same time. Political party representatives should be provided with SIR data in soft copy, OCR, and machine-readable formats, as well as hard copies,” said Sapkal.

He said a minimum period of one month should be given to raise objections or respond to notices related to SIR. “Before removing a voter’s name, a notice of at least seven days must be given to hear the individual’s side. It must be ensured that booth level officers (BLOs) do not work under pressure from any individual, organisation, or political leader, and a special drive should be conducted for the registration of booth level agents (BLAs),” he said.

The demands also include the entire SIR data should be preserved for at least five years at ERO and DEO levels and be made available to political parties as required. It further stated that Form 7 (seeking deletion of voters’ names) applications should be strictly scrutinised and lists of voters marked as “Absent, Shifted, or Dead” (ASD) should be provided in a timely manner to recognised political parties at the polling booth level. “Strict care must be taken to ensure that the process does not indirectly enforce citizenship verification or implement NRC through the back door. The process should remain limited to voter registration,” said the demand letter submitted by Congress.