The Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the Election Commission, which aims to update and clean the electoral roll, will begin on Tuesday in nine states and three union territories.
The exercise, which affects 51 million voters, is due to end on February 7, 2026, when the final electoral rolls will be published.
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This is the second phase of SIR after Bihar, where the final voter list containing nearly 7.42 lakh names was released on September 30.
List of States, UTs where the second round of SIR will be held:
The 12 states and Union Territories where the second round of SIR will be held include Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Puducherry, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.
Among them, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Kerala and West Bengal will go to polls in 2026.
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In Assam, another state slated for polls in 2026, the revision of electoral rolls will be announced separately as the state is undergoing a Supreme Court-supervised exercise to verify citizenship.
A separate provision of the Citizenship Act also applied to Assam.
“Under the Citizenship Act, there are separate provisions for citizenship in Assam. Under the supervision of the Supreme Court, the exercise of citizenship review will be close to completion. The June 24 SIR order was for the entire country. In such circumstances, it would not apply to Assam,” Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar said on October 27 while announcing the latest phase of the SIR.
“So separate revision orders will be issued for Assam and a separate SIR date will be announced,” he said.
SIR will begin on November 4th with the enumeration phase and will continue until December 4th.
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The EC will publish the draft voter lists on December 9, and the final voter lists will be published on February 7. The ongoing SIR is the ninth such exercise since independence, the last being held in 2002-04.
The EC is of the view that the SIR will ensure that no eligible voter is left out and no ineligible voter is included in the voter list.
The last SIR in the states will serve as the cut-off date, just as the 2003 Bihar electoral roll has been used by the EC for intensive revision.
Most states had their last SIR between 2002 and 2004 and have almost completed mapping current voters, he said.
What is the goal of SIR?
The primary objective of the SIR is to screen out illegal foreign migrants by checking their place of birth. The move gains significance in the wake of crackdowns in various states against illegal migrants, including those from Bangladesh and Myanmar.
When the SIR was launched in Bihar in June, several political parties claimed it would take away millions of eligible citizens due to lack of documents.
When the matter reached the Supreme Court, the EC defended its decision to purge the electoral roll and assured that no eligible citizen of India would be left out.
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After the publication of the final voter list, the opposition’s attack on the SIR and EC was muted.
Ahead of SIRs in 12 states and Union Territories, several political parties in Tamil Nadu on Sunday decided to move the Supreme Court against the exercise.
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This time, the Election Commission has included Bihar’s post-SIR voter list and Aadhaar cards among the orientation documents voters will have to produce in 12 states and Union Territories.
Unlike the rules followed during Bihar’s SIR, the EC has now instructed its field officers that voters need not produce documents at the enumeration stage.
Only those who cannot be linked to the previous SIR of their state will have to provide the documents after receiving notification from the Electoral Registration Officer.
Key things
- The Special Intensive Revision (SIR) aims to update and clean the electoral rolls in 12 states and UTs.
- Voters may only need to submit documentation if it cannot be linked to previous voter rolls.
- The initiative is part of a broader effort to address illegal foreign migration and ensure electoral integrity.
