Political parties in AP struggle to trace missing voters ahead of EC’s SIR exercise

Vijayawada: Political parties in the state have begun hectic preparations to tackle the upcoming Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls to be undertaken by the Election Commission of India (ECI).Major parties including the TDP, YSRCP, Jana Sena Party and BJP have already appointed dedicated leaders and teams to coordinate with constituency-level cadres and booth level assistants (BLAs) ahead of the crucial exercise. However, despite the elaborate preparations, political parties are facing a major challenge in identifying voters, who could potentially go missing from the rolls before the draft electoral lists are officially released on July 21.The Election Commission will launch door-to-door verification through booth level officers (BLOs) as part of the SIR process from June 15. YSRCP general secretary Lella Appireddy said the party had already completed the appointment of BLAs and was training them through virtual meetings. He said the Election Commission had also assured training support to BLAs so that they could assist BLOs during the verification process. “We are now waiting for the process to commence fully at the field level by ECI,” he said.The biggest concern for political parties is the drastic change in polling station boundaries and voter distribution since 2002, which forms the base year for the present SIR exercise. Party leaders said large-scale migration of voters, shifting of residences and urban expansion over the last two decades have made tracking electors an extremely difficult task.A senior legislator pointed out that the parties currently possess both the 2002 electoral lists and the 2024 voter rolls, but they are non-machine readable, making digital comparison nearly impossible. “How can we track every elector from the 2002 lists under such circumstances? It is highly difficult to identify and locate each voter,” he remarked.Leaders across parties are also unhappy that the Election Commission has not yet shared details of voters already mapped during the preliminary verification process. Political leaders believe the mapped voters are relatively safe, but uncertainty remains over those who are yet to be identified.Another senior leader explained that parties would get clarity only after BLOs complete their field visits and submit reports. Meanwhile, all major parties have begun alerting their loyal supporters to keep documents ready for verification during BLO visits. MLAs, constituency in-charges and local cadres are now working overtime to ensure that their committed vote banks remain intact after the SIR scrutiny.Sources said party leaders, particularly in rural areas, have already begun manually checking old voter lists by visiting households. Yet, many admitted that locating names from the 2002 records has become an uphill task due to demographic and geographical changes over the years.