On Monday, when Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar announced the nationwide Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls — it will be carried out across 12 states and one Union Territory — it was apparent that the EC had paid attention to the Supreme Court and learnt from its Bihar experience. The nationwide exercise, which includes states scheduled to hold polls in the first half of next year — Kerala, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, and Puducherry — will start on November 4. Around 5.33 lakh booth-level officers (BLOs) will visit households to get enumeration forms filled in. It will be followed by the submission of forms by December 4 and the publication of the first draft electoral rolls on December 9.

The exercise is going to be different from the Bihar SIR on three counts

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