LDF to seek speedy legal steps for staying SIR in crucial election year in Kerala

The Left Democratic Front (LDF) will seek legal recourse, including possibly a speedy hearing in the Supreme Court, against the Election Commission of India (EC)‘s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voters’ list in the short run-up to the local body polls and the Assembly elections in 2026, which the ruling front and the Opposition believe risks disenfranchising an estimated 50 lakh voters in Kerala. 

LDF convener T.P. Ramakrishnan accused the EC of forsaking its Constitutionally mandated impartiality. He alleged that the panel had become a junior political partner to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Mr. Ramakrishnan said the EC had revealed a stark political bias by disregarding the unanimous resolution passed by the Kerala Assembly against the SIR. In contrast, the EC had given Maharashtra and Assam, both BJP-ruled States, reprieve from the SIR.

‘Sub judice’

He said a related case was pending in the Supreme Court against the SIR. The judgment in the case was pending. “However, the EC seems undeterred and ready to risk contempt of court for its political masters,” he added. 

‘Makes no sense’

Mr. Ramakrishnan said the SIR in Kerala was superfluous. “Kerala’s voters’ list was revised as recently as 2024 for the Lok Sabha elections. Further re-revision makes no legal or political sense,” he added.

The LDF meeting also noted that the EC’s decision to use the 2002 electoral rolls as a reference point for preparing the latest voters’ list was fundamentally flawed. It noted that Kerala’s population had increased by an estimated 1.57 crore since. The number of polling booths in the State had risen by 10,000, he said. 

Moreover, the LDF noted that the EC, allegedly acting at the instance of its BJP masters, had made inclusion on the latest voters’ list impossibly difficult for large swathes of the population. For one, the LDF meeting noted that the EC did not accept Kerala’s ration cards as proof of valid identity. It had mandated voters to produce a set of at least 12 difficult-to-obtain documents at short notice, including evidence of parentage, domicile and nativity, for enrolment as a bona fide voter. The meeting accused the EC of making voter registration a knotty task bogged down by red tape and difficult form-filling.