Team Goemkarponn
PANAJI: The Election Commission of India (ECI) has successfully completed the Special Summary Revision (SSR) of Electoral Rolls for 2025, marking another milestone in the country’s commitment to ensuring a transparent and participatory electoral process. India’s Electoral Rolls, which contain over 99 crore registered electors, remain the largest database of electors globally.
The SSR exercise, which occurs annually between October and December, culminates in the publication of final electoral rolls in January. For the recently concluded SSR 2025, the schedule was issued on August 7, 2024, with the final rolls published between January 6-10, 2025. This year’s revision process involved widespread participation from political parties, the public, and over 13.87 lakh Booth Level Agents (BLAs) across the country.
At the booth level, each polling booth was assigned a Booth Level Officer (BLO) who conducted house-to-house verification of the electoral rolls. Political parties also appointed BLAs who were tasked with verifying the rolls for accuracy and raising objections if discrepancies were found. These agents had the authority to request corrections to ensure the lists remained accurate.
After the BLOs submitted their recommendations to the Electoral Registration Officer (ERO), the electoral rolls were published in draft form for public scrutiny. Political parties and the public had a one-month period to raise claims and objections. Once these were settled, the final rolls were published, making them available to political parties and accessible on the ECI website.
In cases where electors found issues with the rolls, they had the right to file an appeal under the provisions of the Representation of the People (RP) Act, 1950. First appeals could be filed with the District Magistrate (DM) or Executive Magistrate under Section 24(a), and second appeals could be made to the Chief Electoral Officer of the concerned State/UT under Section 24(b).
For the SSR 2025 in Goa, the final electoral roll was published with a total of 11,79,195 electors. In this process, 1,725 BLOs and 1,158 BLAs were appointed. Interestingly, there were few appeals filed for corrections or inclusion, indicating the smooth and effective nature of the SSR process. As a result, the electoral rolls published in January 2025 are considered undisputed and final.
The SSR also included States and Union Territories that held assembly elections after the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. In total, the SSR exercise covered over 10.5 lakh polling booths across the country.
This participatory and transparent process ensures that India’s electoral rolls remain accurate, maintaining the integrity of the democratic system.
