Left parties to hold protests against SIR and CEC

1. At a Glance

• Special Intensive Revision (SIR) is the Election Commission of India's (ECI) drive to re-verify electoral rolls. Its stated aim is that no eligible citizen is left out and no ineligible person is included. [1][2]
• Five Left parties have demanded the ouster of CEC Gyanesh Kumar and a halt to SIR. They announced a week-long nationwide protest from 26 September to 2 October 2026. [5]
• This is a live test of ECI's constitutional autonomy (Art. 324), the statutory base for SIR, and the CEC removal mechanism. All three are examinable.

2. Why in the News

• Five Left parties issued a joint statement demanding the CEC's ouster and a halt to SIR. They announced protests from 26 September to 2 October. [5]
• The statement followed an impromptu meeting at CPI(M) headquarters. Those present were M.A. Baby (CPI(M)), D. Raja (CPI) and Dipankar Bhattacharya (CPI(ML) Liberation). [5]
• The other signatories are the Revolutionary Socialist Party and the All India Forward Bloc. [5]
• The statement said an unnamed "report" confirms Opposition concerns. It also said the report exposes the hollowness of claims that SIR and roll management are "transparent and decentralised". The excerpt does not identify the report. [5]

3. Background & Evolution

• SIR was first ordered for Bihar. [3]
• Phase-II began in 9 States and 3 UTs. [4]
• A Phase III has also been announced. [6]
• ECI says SIR is being conducted "in phases with multiple safeguards". [1]
• The Supreme Court examined SIR's legality. It held that the exercise is within ECI's statutory mandate under the RP Act 1950 and consonant with Art. 324. This is as summarised in the search result; verify the case name and date before quoting. [1]
• The CEC's appointment and service conditions are now governed by the 2023 Act. It replaced the earlier 1991 law. [7]

4. Core Static Facts

Item	Fact
Constitutional basis for ECI	Art. 324 [1]
Statutory basis for roll revision	Section 21, Representation of the People Act, 1950, with the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960 [1]
Stated objective of SIR	No eligible citizen left out; no ineligible person included [2]
Safeguards claimed by ECI	Supervisory cross-verification of BLO enumeration; random audits of deleted entries; public disclosure of draft and final rolls [1]
CEC removal	Same manner as a Supreme Court judge. It needs a presidential order after a motion passes both Houses in the same session. The motion needs a majority of total membership and two-thirds of those present and voting. [7]
EC removal	Only on the CEC's recommendation [7]
Governing law for appointments	CEC and Other ECs (Appointment, Conditions of Service and Term of Office) Act, 2023 [7]
Signatory parties	CPI(M), CPI, CPI(ML) Liberation, RSP, AIFB [5]

5. Multi-Dimensional Analysis

Legal / Constitutional

• ECI acts under Art. 324 and Section 21 of the RP Act 1950. The Supreme Court has upheld SIR as within the statutory mandate. [1]
• Removing the CEC is deliberately difficult, to protect independence. A protest demand for "ouster" therefore has no easy constitutional route. [7]

Ethical / Governance

• The Left's charge is that SIR and roll management are not truly transparent or decentralised. [5]
• ECI's response is to point to quality checks and public disclosure of draft and final rolls. [1]

Administrative

• SIR runs in phases across States and UTs and relies on Booth Level Officers (BLOs) for enumeration. [1][4]
• Bottlenecks include the accuracy of enumeration, deletions and the claims-and-objections process. This point is analytical and not sourced.

Political / Federal

• Opposition mobilisation is aimed at ECI as an institution. The protest window (26 September to 2 October) is 2 October-linked. [5]

6. Recent Developments (last 12-18 months)

• Bihar SIR was announced by ECI. [3]
• SIR Phase-II began in 9 States and 3 UTs. [4]
• SIR Phase III was announced. [6]
• ECI issued a statement on the phased conduct and safeguards. [1]
• 24-25 September 2026: the Left parties issued a joint statement and announced protests from 26 September to 2 October. [5]

7. Prelims Hooks

• SIR is ordered under Art. 324 and Section 21 of the RP Act, 1950. [1]
• Rules invoked: Registration of Electors Rules, 1960. [1]
• SIR objective: no eligible elector left out, no ineligible person included. [2]
• The CEC is removable like a Supreme Court judge. [7]
• Removal needs a majority of total membership and two-thirds of those present and voting. [7]
• An Election Commissioner is removable only on the CEC's recommendation. [7]
• The 2023 Act replaced the 1991 law on CEC and EC service conditions. [7]
• The current CEC named in the article is Gyanesh Kumar. [5]
• Five parties signed the statement: CPI(M), CPI, CPI(ML) Liberation, RSP, AIFB. [5]
• CPI(M) general secretary: M.A. Baby. CPI general secretary: D. Raja. CPI(ML) Liberation general secretary: Dipankar Bhattacharya. [5]
• Protest dates: 26 September to 2 October 2026. [5]
• SIR Phase-II covered 9 States and 3 UTs. [4]

8. What the Bihar Round Removed, and Why the Same Number Reads Two Ways

• The deletions are not random — ECI put them in three boxes
• In Bihar about 1.59% of electors were found dead, 2.2% had permanently shifted, and 0.73% were enrolled in more than one place [9].
• Together that is roughly 4.5% of a roll of about 7.89 crore electors — several lakh names [9].

• ECI's point: a roll that old always carries dead and moved-away voters. Cleaning it is not the same as removing real voters.

• The dispute is about the fourth group — people who simply did not file the form

• Over 7.24 crore electors filled the Enumeration Form in the window 24 June to 25 July 2025 [8][9].
• Anyone who did not fill it was not carried into the draft roll, whatever the reason — migrant work, illness, no help to fill a form.

• So the burden flips. Earlier the State had to prove you are not a voter. Now you have to prove again that you are.

• The correction window is short compared to the enumeration window

• Claims and objections in Bihar ran only from 1 August to 1 September 2025 — about one month [9].
• A migrant worker in Delhi or Surat has to learn his name is missing, get back the papers, and file in that month.
• ECI's safeguard is that no name can be cut from the draft without notice and a speaking order (a written order giving reasons) by the ERO [9]. That protects those who are noticed, not those who never knew.

9. The Real Weak Spot Is Not Removal of the CEC — It Is His Appointment

• The note already says removal is near-impossible. The other half is that appointment is easy for the government
• The Selection Committee under the 2023 Act is the Prime Minister, a Cabinet Minister, and the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha [7].

• Two of the three are from the ruling side. So the government can always outvote the Opposition member [7].

• This is not what the Supreme Court had ordered

• In March 2023, in Anoop Baranwal, the Court said the CEC and ECs must not be picked by the executive alone, and fixed a panel of the PM, the Leader of Opposition and the Chief Justice of India [7].
• Parliament then passed the 2023 Act and replaced the CJI with a Cabinet Minister [7].

• PRS flags exactly this: a government-majority panel may undermine the independence of the ECI [7].

• Put the two halves together and you get the Left's real complaint

• Easy for the government to appoint. Almost impossible for anyone to remove.

• Security of tenure was meant to make a CEC fearless towards the government. It only does that if the government did not choose him alone.

• One more gap: a vacancy does not stop the panel

• The Committee can still recommend a name even when a seat on it is empty [7].
• If the Leader of Opposition's post is vacant, the two government members alone decide.

10. The Strongest Case FOR SIR, and Where It Actually Holds

• Rolls really do rot, and nobody else cleans them
• Bihar's own count showed dead, shifted and double-registered names adding to roughly 4.5% of the roll [9].
• A bloated roll is not harmless. It lowers the real turnout figure and leaves entries that can be misused.

• The routine yearly summary revision had clearly not caught these, or the numbers would be small.

• ECI did build in checks, and they are on record

• Supervisory cross-checking of BLO (Booth Level Officer) enumeration, random audit of deleted entries, and public publishing of draft and final rolls [1].
• The list of names present in the old roll but missing from the draft was given to every political party for checking [9].

• That is a real transparency step. A party with booth workers can find its missing voters.

• Where the defence gets thin

• Handing the list to parties helps parties, not the individual voter. A voter with no party behind him is on his own.
• The safeguards are all about the process. None of them fixes the deeper design choice — that a citizen must re-prove himself inside a fixed, short window.

11. Why the Left Is on the Street Instead of in Court or Parliament

• The courtroom door is mostly shut for now
• The Supreme Court has held SIR to be within ECI's statutory mandate under the RP Act 1950 and in line with Art. 324 [1].

• So a fresh challenge to the whole exercise starts from behind.

• The Parliament door needs numbers the Opposition does not have

• Removing a CEC needs a motion passed in both Houses in the same session, with a majority of the total membership and two-thirds of those present and voting [7].

• Five Left parties together are a very small part of the Lok Sabha. The demand for "ouster" is therefore a political signal, not a workable plan.

• So the protest is doing a different job

• It is aimed at public opinion and at pulling the wider Opposition into one platform before the next round of SIR.

• This is the pressure group / political mobilisation angle in GS-II: when legal and legislative routes are closed, groups shift to street action to raise the political cost of a decision.

• The risk in this tactic — say it in your answer

• Attacking the CEC personally, rather than the design of SIR, lets the argument be read as politics, not principle.
• It also chips at public trust in the ECI itself, which no party gains from in the long run.

12. Fixes That Someone Has Actually Proposed

• Parliament should restore the Chief Justice to the Selection Committee
• This is not a new idea — it is what the Supreme Court itself laid down in Anoop Baranwal (2023) before the Act changed it [7].

• A panel of PM, Leader of Opposition and CJI has no in-built government majority, so the appointment cannot be one-sided [7].

• The Act should bar the Committee from acting with an empty seat

• PRS notes that letting the panel work despite a vacancy can hand the choice entirely to government members [7].

• A simple rule that the Committee must be full before it recommends closes that hole [7].

• ECI should stop treating the claims window as equal to the enumeration window

• Enumeration in Bihar ran over a month with lakhs of BLOs going door to door; correction ran 1 August to 1 September with the voter doing the running [8][9].

• The fix is to make the correction period longer than the enumeration period, not shorter, and to let a voter file from outside the State — because the people most likely to be dropped are the ones who have migrated.

• ECI should publish the deletion list to the public, not only to parties

• Today the missing-names list goes to political parties [9].
• Putting the same list on the constituency website, searchable by EPIC number, lets a voter check himself without needing a party worker.

13. Anchors for Answers

• Data: In Bihar SIR, 1.59% of electors found deceased, 2.2% permanently shifted, 0.73% enrolled at more than one place, out of about 7.89 crore electors [9]
• Data: Over 7.24 crore Enumeration Forms filled during 24 June–25 July 2025; claims and objections only from 1 August to 1 September 2025 [8][9]
• Law/Case: Anoop Baranwal v. Union of India (SC, March 2023) — appointment panel of PM, Leader of Opposition, CJI; later replaced by the CEC and Other ECs Act, 2023 with a Cabinet Minister in place of the CJI [7]
• Law/Case: Art. 324 read with Section 21, Representation of the People Act, 1950 and the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960 — the base for SIR, upheld by the Supreme Court [1]
• Report/Committee: PRS Legislative Brief on the CEC and Other Election Commissioners Bill, 2023 — flags government majority on the Selection Committee and the vacancy loophole [7]
• Scheme: SIR Phase-II in 9 States and 3 UTs, and Phase III — the Bihar experience is the template being scaled up [4][6]

14. Mains Relevance

• GS-II: Salient features of the Representation of the People Act; appointment to and functioning of constitutional bodies; ECI; role of pressure groups; electoral reforms.
• Possible questions:
• The Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls raises questions of inclusion and institutional trust. Critically examine. (15 marks)
• Discuss the constitutional safeguards for the independence of the Election Commission. Are they adequate? (15 marks)
• Examine the legal basis and limits of ECI's plenary powers under Art. 324 with reference to roll revision. (10 marks)

15. Related Topics to Study Next

• Art. 324 and the ECI's plenary powers: this is the basis of SIR.
• RP Act 1950 vs 1951: rolls and qualifications are in the 1950 Act; conduct of elections and disqualification are in the 1951 Act.
• CEC and ECs Act, 2023: it governs appointment and service conditions.
• Removal of constitutional functionaries: compare with the procedure for Supreme Court judges.
• Electoral roll management, EPIC and BLOs.
• Citizenship and voter eligibility: Art. 326.
• Electoral reforms: for example, the proposed electoral reforms in the PRS document.
• Delimitation: it appears as a topic in the same news section.

16. Common Errors / Trap Areas

• RP Act 1950 vs 1951: SIR is under Section 21 of the 1950 Act. [1]
• CEC vs EC removal: the CEC is removed like a judge. An EC is removed only on the CEC's recommendation. [7]
• Statutory vs constitutional basis: SIR draws on both Art. 324 and the RP Act 1950. Do not cite one alone. [1]
• Confusing the Left parties: CPI, CPI(M) and CPI(ML) Liberation are distinct parties with different general secretaries. [5]
• Unverified claims: the "report" referred to in the Left's statement is not identified in the excerpt. Do not attribute it to any body. [5]