The many categories of SIR’s list of logical inconsistencies keep voters on their toes

Officials verifying details during a public hearing under special intensive review in Malleshwaram, Bengaluru on September 24, 2026. | Photo credit: Sudhakara Jain

Rajiv Chopra (name changed), a resident of Vaishali Colony in North West Delhi’s Pitampura, was making last-minute preparations for a trip abroad when a neighbor called him to inform him that his children were on the Election Commission’s list of logical irregularities being circulated in his society.

During a quick talk with the Booth Level Officer (BLO), he learned that his children had been flagged despite being on the draft list as the age difference between them was not more than nine months. Well, it can’t be because his 30-year-old children are twins.

The mandatory nine-month age gap between siblings is one of the many categories of logical inconsistencies that Indian voters have to navigate to get onto the electoral roll during the latest and third Special Intensive Review (SIR) exercise. As many as 11 different categories of logic irregularities have been identified and applied in various states and Union Territories (such as Karnataka, Haryana, Delhi, Telangana and others), expanding from the original four categories that were initially used when the concept was introduced during the SIR exercise in West Bengal.

Among the categories, there is an age difference of less than 15 years between the voter and his parent; age difference of less than 40 years between the voter and his grandparent; more than six siblings linked to one parent; discrepancies or spelling variations in the parent’s name between the current electoral roll and the previous revision; changes in relative mapping between revisions (eg sire in previous rolls vs. mother in current rolls); mismatch in spousal mapping (e.g. voter linked to her father in the previous list but mapped to her husband in the current list without cross-referencing); and age discrepancy (improbable age jumps or mathematical inconsistencies between different revision cycles).

Irregularities are flagged within a centralized artificial intelligence system through the ERONet, or Electoral Officers Network. The software attempts “descendant mapping” – matching voters to their parent’s records on the master list and the resulting discrepancies are flagged.

The logical contradiction category first emerged during the SIR in West Bengal when around 1.36 lakh voters received notices. In Delhi, where the SIR is currently being conducted, 19.33 lakh voters have received irregularity notices, while 20.35 lakh voters have received them in Karnataka.

The problem is that “logical contradictions” were never clearly defined in any official communication — neither in the Election Commission’s May 2026 communication nor in the original SIR order of June 2025. Thus, the actual parameters or methodology used to place someone in this category have not been publicly documented.

Another problem is with the ERONet software itself, which two election commissioners described as increasingly centralized. They said the election registration officials complained that they were unable to access the platform from their end in many cases.

A month before the completion of SIR in West Bengal, the EC launched ECINET in January 2026 and ERONet was brought under this broader umbrella along with 40 other applications and portals used for election-related work. The survey body said this was aimed at streamlining the process.

Former Trinamool Congress MP and Right to Information Act activist Saket Gokhale has alleged that the EC is “hiding” details of the software used for SIR, saying it is a “trade secret”.

In a post on X, he shared an RTI application asking the EC for details about the software, who designed it and who got the tender.

“Shockingly, the EC refused to release the details, claiming it would affect ‘business confidence,'” he said.

“The software consists of an opaque algorithm that was used to wipe voters through a centralized system in Delhi (bypassing the ERO). The software used by the public body is kept secret for commercial interests,” he said.

Published – 24 Sep 2026 22:21 IST