3 min readPuneJul 3, 2026 12:58 PM IST
First published on: Jul 2, 2026 at 12:04 AM IST
Block Level Officer (BLO) Jyotsna Shinde was seated at a resident’s house in Marketyard, Pune, helping him fill out the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) Enumeration Form. While she was in conversation with the resident, her phone buzzed.
“Ma’am, where are you? I will come give you my family’s documents,” said Mushraf Ali Peerzada, the voice on the other side. Even though Shinde assured him that she would visit his residence to collect his information, Peerzada insisted on getting his family’s enumeration process started. Within a few minutes, he arrived at the location and provided necessary identity documents like passport-sized photos of his family members to the BLO.
“I have gotten at least six to seven such calls since the morning. They are all from Muslim families. They are anxious and insist that they will come and deliver their documents to us even if we tell them we will be visiting their house over the next few days,” said Swati Owhal, another BLO working in the same region.
‘The SIR is currently being conducted by the Election Commission of India in various states. The door-to-door distribution of enumeration forms commenced in Maharashtra on June 30 and will continue till July 29.
The controversial SIR in West Bengal left over 27 lakh people out of the voter rolls “under adjudication” over “logical discrepancies”. These people were not allowed to vote in the 2026 assembly election, in which the BJP emerged victorious for the first time in the state.
A BLO from the Kondhwa Khurd region said that he had received five calls from Muslim families on July 1. During the pre-SIR mapping process, the BLO said he received around 40 to 50 calls, 90 per cent of which were from Muslim families.
Anjum Inamdar, President of the Muslim Moolnivasi Manch, told The Indian Express, “There is a fear of deletion of names amongst the Muslim community. We saw what happened in West Bengal. Various organisations including us have tried to spread awareness amongst our community about the importance of the SIR. If their names get deleted from the voter roll, they will not be able to vote. And if you are not able to vote, you are not a citizen of the country, right?”
“Many don’t have documents of their parents or grandparents available with them. So we have told people to collect these documents and have passport sized photographs ready with them for the SIR,” he added.
Similarly, Imran Shaikh of Jamat-e-Islami Hind said that there is fear amongst the community about their names being deleted. “We have pasted posters in various places and circulated photos on Whatsapp to increase awareness of the SIR. We have helped our neighbours during the pre-mapping process, Muslim or non-Muslim.”
Shaikh pointed out that discrepancies in spellings in different documents amongst Muslims were common as the name ‘Mohammad’ has at least three commonly used spellings. “At our office in Camp we have kept aside 6 pm to 8 pm on Thursday and Friday specifically to help with SIR. We have helped thousands of people till now. BLOs are now doing door-to-door visits. The BLOs have been helpful and are cooperating with us.”
Confusion over two lists of documents — one in Marathi and another in English — that have to be submitted for verification, has led to difficulties in filling enumeration form (Express photo by Arul Horizon) 
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