Written by Asad RehmanNew Delhi | November 19, 2025 03:18 AM IST 2 min readCongress leader Rahul Gandhi arrives at party office to attend a meeting on SIR of electoral rolls, on Tuesday. (Photo: Anil Sharma)As the deadline for phase-II of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in nine states and three UTs nears, the Congress on Tuesday took stock of the party’s preparedness for the exercise and told the party units to appoint booth level agents (BLAs) at the earliest.The party also announced a protest rally against the SIR exercise at Delhi’s Ramlila Maidan in the first week of December.The party’s central leadership, including party chief Mallikarjun Kharge, Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi and party general secretary (organisation) K C Venugopal, met the leaders from the states and UTs, for which SIR has been announced, at its headquarters and asked them to work in a “time-bound manner” to ensure BLAs are in place at the earliest. During the discussion it emerged that only one-third of the BLAs are in place in Uttar Pradesh.The second phase of the SIR will cover nearly 51 crore electors with December 4 as the deadline for the completion of enumeration.“The high command was very clear that we need to work from the ground to ensure the party’s presence at the booth level,” said a source.The high command is learnt to have told party leaders to submit complaints to district magistrate if they see any anomaly on part of the Booth Level Officers (BLOs).After the meeting, Venugopal said the Delhi rally will “expose the EC again” and accused the poll body of making “a sinister attempt” to “destroy democracy in the country”.Story continues below this adAfter strongly opposing the SIR in Bihar, this will be the second time when Congress will hit the streets against the exercise. The united Opposition had last protested during the Monsoon session of Parliament in August.On the feedback from the state leadership, Venugopal said the “feeling of the state units is that the EC is purposely trying to delete votes of some sections of society” as it was done in Bihar.Citing recent instances of suicide by BLOs, he questioned the need for the SIR when all political parties, except the BJP, are against it. Venugopal also mentioned the Kerala Assembly resolution seeking “postponement of the SIR exercise”.Asad Rehman is with the national bureau of The Indian Express and covers politics and policy focusing on religious minorities in India. A journalist for over eight years, Rehman moved to this role after covering Uttar Pradesh for five years for The Indian Express. During his time in Uttar Pradesh, he covered politics, crime, health, and human rights among other issues. He did extensive ground reports and covered the protests against the new citizenship law during which many were killed in the state. During the Covid pandemic, he did extensive ground reporting on the migration of workers from the metropolitan cities to villages in Uttar Pradesh. He has also covered some landmark litigations, including the Babri Masjid-Ram temple case and the ongoing Gyanvapi-Kashi Vishwanath temple dispute. Prior to that, he worked on The Indian Express national desk for three years where he was a copy editor. Rehman studied at La Martiniere, Lucknow and then went on to do a bachelor's degree in History from Ramjas College, Delhi University. He also has a Masters degree from the AJK Mass Communication Research Centre, Jamia Millia Islamia. ... Read MoreStay updated with the latest - Click here to follow us on Instagram© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd