Congress Leader Tharoor Says SIR Benefited Party in Kerala

Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor has suggested that the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls may have ended up benefiting the Congress-led alliance in Kerala by removing alleged duplicate voter registrations that had existed for years. Tharoor made the comments at the Stanford India Conference in San Francisco, citing relatively fewer disputes over voter deletions in Kerala compared to states such as West Bengal.

According to Tharoor, the revision exercise may have cleaned up multiple voter registrations that allegedly favoured the CPI(M) in the past, with the Congress leader stating that the CPI(M) was long a past master of double, triple, quadruple enrolment.

Tharoor also drew a comparison between the number of pending appeals in West Bengal and the BJP's victory margin in the state, questioning whether the process had been entirely fair.

The Congress party in Kerala is currently awaiting a decision on the choice of Chief Minister, with alliance partners expressing unhappiness over the prolonged delay despite securing a massive mandate in the recent assembly elections. The party is expected to make an announcement on the Chief Minister choice in the coming days.