After Bihar, where the first phase of SIR concluded with the publication of the final voters’ list on September 30 containing 7.42 crore names, this marks the second round of the exercise
The exercise will conclude on February 7, 2026, with the publication of the final electoral roll.
New Delhi: The Special Intensive Revision (SIR), the Election Commission’s large-scale voters’ list cleanup exercise, will begin on Tuesday across nine states and three Union Territories, covering about 51 crore voters. The exercise will conclude on February 7, 2026, with the publication of the final electoral roll, according to official sources.
After Bihar, where the first phase of SIR concluded with the publication of the final voters’ list on September 30 containing 7.42 crore names, this marks the second round of the exercise. The 12 states and Union Territories where SIR will be conducted include Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Puducherry, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal.
Among these, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Kerala, and West Bengal are scheduled to go to polls in 2026. In Assam, another state where elections are due the same year, the voter list revision will be announced separately as the Supreme Court-supervised citizenship verification process is still underway.
Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar said on October 27 that special provisions under the Citizenship Act apply to Assam. “Under the Citizenship Act, there are separate provisions for citizenship in Assam. Under the supervision of the Supreme Court, the exercise of checking citizenship is about to be completed. The June 24 SIR order was for the entire country, so it would not apply to Assam. A separate revision order will be issued,” he said.
According to the Election Commission, the SIR will begin on November 4 with the enumeration stage, which will continue till December 4. The draft electoral rolls will be released on December 9, and the final rolls will be published on February 7, 2026.
This will be the ninth SIR since Independence, the last having been conducted between 2002 and 2004. The Commission said the purpose of the exercise is to ensure that no eligible voter is left out and no ineligible name is retained in the rolls.
The last SIR in each state will serve as the cut-off reference, similar to how the 2003 Bihar voter list was used during the state’s intensive revision. Most states had their previous SIR between 2002 and 2004 and have now nearly completed mapping current electors to those rolls.
The Commission said the primary objective of the SIR is to weed out illegal foreign migrants by verifying the place of birth of voters, a move that has gained significance amid recent crackdowns on undocumented migrants from Bangladesh and Myanmar.
The SIR’s launch in Bihar in June faced opposition from political parties, which alleged it could disenfranchise citizens lacking proper documents. When the matter reached the Supreme Court, the Election Commission defended the process, assuring that no eligible Indian citizen would be excluded. Following the publication of the final list in Bihar, the political criticism has largely subsided.
Ahead of the new phase, several political parties in Tamil Nadu have announced plans to approach the Supreme Court challenging the exercise in the state. This time, the Election Commission has added Aadhaar cards and the Bihar SIR voter list to the list of indicative documents required for verification.
In a procedural change from the Bihar phase, the EC has clarified that voters will not have to submit documents during the enumeration stage. Only those whose details cannot be linked to previous voter lists will be asked to produce documents once they receive a notice from the electoral registration officer.
( Source : Asian Age )
Next Story