Phase-II of SIR in 12 states, UTs to begin November 4, final rolls out by February 7

NEW DELHI: The second phase of Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter rolls will be held in 12 states and Union Territories between November and February next year, Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar announced at a press conference here on Monday.

The states and Union Territories are the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Puducherry, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. Among these, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Kerala and Puducherry will vote in high-stakes Assembly elections next year. The most populous state Uttar Pradesh will vote in 2027.

The CEC clarified that in Assam, where polls are also due in 2026, the revision of electoral rolls will be announced separately. Asked about it, the poll panel said that since citizenship rules for Assam ‘differ from the rest of the country’, voter list revision for the northeastern state will be held at a later date. Kumar said a separate provision of the Citizenship Act was applicable 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. Under such circumstances, this would not have applied to Assam,” Kumar said.

The first phase of this nationwide ‘special intensive revision’ of voter lists was conducted over June and July in Bihar, an exercise the poll body said was completed with the publication of the final roll-on September 30. There were “zero appeals” against ‘wrongful deletions’, the EC said.

“As per law, electoral rolls have to be revised before every election or as per requirement,” CEC Kumar said, pointing out that the opposition, which had questioned the timing of the Bihar voter list revision, coming as it did less than six months before the election, had also “been raising issues relating to the quality of voter rolls”.

“SIR (i.e., special intensive revision of voter lists) has already been done eight times from 1951 till 2004. The last SIR was done more than 21 years ago...from 2002 to 2004,” Kumar said, adding the ongoing SIR is the ninth such exercise since Independence.

Phase two of the SIR exercise will begin on November 4 with the enumeration state and continue till December 4. The EC will release the draft electoral rolls on December 9, and the final electoral rolls will be published on February 7. Phase two of SIR will cover 51 crore voters.

The CEC also ruled out any confrontation with the West Bengal government, where the ruling Trinamool Congress has expressed reservations about the SIR exercise in the state.

“There is no hurdle between the Election Commission and the state government. The Commission is doing its constitutional duty by carrying out the SIR, and the state government will discharge its constitutional duties,” Kumar said.

The CEC said state governments were bound to provide the necessary personnel to the Election Commission for the preparation of electoral rolls and conduct of polls.

On the demands for putting off the SIR exercise in Kerala on account of local bodies elections, Kumar said the notification of the local bodies elections was yet to be issued.

Kumar also said that an Aadhaar card is not proof of citizenship, but it can be used as proof of identity. The CEC made the comments, citing the Supreme Court’s ruling that Aadhaar is to be used in accordance with the Aadhaar Act.

“Aadhaar card is not proof of date of birth or domicile,” Kumar said at the press conference. “Aadhaar is not proof of citizenship but can be furnished as identity proof in SIR exercise.”

The voters’ list cleanup exercise has been concluded in Bihar, with the final list of nearly 7.42 crore electors published on September 30. Polling in the state will be held in two phases—on November 6 and November 11—and the counting of votes will take place on November 14.

The nationwide SIR was announced after two rounds of extensive deliberations which the Election Commission held with state chief electoral officers (CEOs) to firm up the rollout roadmap. Several CEOs have already put the voter lists after their last SIR on their websites.

The website of the Delhi CEO has the 2008 voter list when the last intensive revision took place in the national capital. In Uttarakhand, the last SIR took place in 2006, and that year’s electoral roll is now available on the state CEO website.

The primary aim of the SIR is to weed out foreign illegal migrants by checking their place of birth. The move assumes significance in the wake of a crackdown in various states on illegal migrants, including those from Bangladesh and Myanmar.