The Election Commission of India (ECI) has announced the schedule for Phase III of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the Electoral Rolls. | Photo credit: The Hindu
The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Thursday (May 14, 2026) announced the schedule for Phase 3 of Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in 16 states and three Union Territories starting May 30.
The ECI said that this phase of the exercise will cover the entire country except Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. The SIR schedule for these states will be announced later after considering the completion of II. census phase and due consideration of weather on headwaters or in areas with snow.
States and Union Territories where SIR-3 would be implemented in a staggered manner are: Delhi, Odisha, Mizoram, Sikkim, Manipur, Uttarakhand, Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Haryana, Chandigarh, Telangana, Punjab, Karnataka, Meghalaya, Da Maharash, Nahanda, Napuri Havel, J. Daman and Diu. The combined electorate of these states was 36.73 million.
The final electoral rolls of states undergoing SIR at this stage will be released on various dates this year, starting with Odisha, Sikkim, Mizoram and Manipur on September 6 and ending with Tripura on December 23. The final electoral rolls of Delhi, Karnataka, Meghalaya, Maharashtra and Jharkhand are expected to be released on October 7.
The exercise has already been conducted in Bihar, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Puducherry, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep. In Assam, a “special review” was conducted due to the National Register of Citizens (NRC) laws.
“I urge all voters to enthusiastically participate in SIR Phase 3 and fill their enumeration forms. SIR is being conducted to ensure that only eligible voters are included in the electoral roll,” said Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
Over 3.94 lakh Booth Level Officers (BLOs) would go door to door with the help of 3.42 lakh Booth Level Agents (BLAs) appointed by political parties during the counting phase, the poll body said in a statement.
The electorate in the 12 states and Union Territories was over 50.99 million when the SIR Phase 2 was announced by the EC on October 27 and now the figure stood at 45.81 million, a decline of over 5.18 million, which was about 10.2%.
The rules for Phase 3 SIR would be the same as Phase 2. While announcing Phase 2 on October 27 last year, the EC had introduced certain changes based on insights from Bihar, where the first phase was implemented. The most important of these was that no documents were collected from voters during the counting phase. Aadhaar was added as the 12th document as per the Supreme Court guidelines but only as a proof of identity and not citizenship.
New voter registrations were also conducted simultaneously during the house-to-house census.
Published – 14 May 2026 14:29 IST
