Kerala to legally challenge SIR; oppn says it is ready to become a party

All parties, except the BJP, that attended the meeting backed the State’s decision to move legally against the SIR exercise, it said.

The decision comes days after a similar all-party meeting in Tamil Nadu, chaired by CM MK Stalin, also adopted the move to approach the Supreme Court against the exercise. Kerala, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, all of which head towards Assembly elections next year, are among the states where the ECI is going ahead with the SIR plan.

“The CM informed the meeting that in the context of the upcoming local body elections, legal opinion will be sought as a government and as a political party to question the SIR. While a revised voter list is in place following the Lok Sabha elections last year, the move to implement a radical voter list revision based on the 2002 list is both unscientific and ill-intentioned, the CM told the meeting,” the statement from his office said.

All parties, except the BJP, shared the opinion that the problems arising out of the SIR exercise were manifold and that it was being implemented with a specific agenda.

Leader of Opposition VD Satheesan agreed with the concerns shared by the Chief Minister and said he is ready to become a party to the case if the government moves the top court against it, the CM’s office said.

CPI(M) state secretary MV Govindan termed the move to implement SIR ‘unconstitutional’ and ‘anti-democratic’.

With local body polls scheduled in November-December and though yet to be formally notified by the State Election Commission (SEC), major parties of the LDF and the UDF had opined that it would be wise to defer the SIR exercise in order to avoid concerns over the deployment of government officials. In October, the Kerala Assembly had unanimously passed a resolution, urging the ECI to desist from implementing the SIR nationwide.

In October, the CM had maintained that the hasty implementation of the SIR exercise was an affront to democratic processes and strengthens fears among a large section of people that it is an indirect way to implement the National Register of Citizens (NRC).

As part of the SIR, the printing and training of election officers took place till November 3, followed by house-to-house enumeration between November 3 and December 4. The draft election rolls will be published on December 8 with claims and objections accepted from December 9, 2025 to January 8, 2026. The final electoral rolls would be published on February 7.

Around 2.07 lakh enumeration forms were distributed across Kerala on Tuesday, the first day of the month-long enumeration phase of the SIR.

Those who attended the all-party virtual meeting on Wednesday included PC Vishnunath (Congress), Sathyan Mokeri (CPI), PK Kunhalikutty (IUML), K Surendran (BJP), Stephen George (Kerala Congress(M)), PJ Joseph (Kerala Congress), Mathew T Thomas (JDS) and Thomas K Thomas (NCP-SP).