EC asks 22 states, UTs to prepare for final phase of SIR expected in April

New Delhi: The Election Commission on Thursday asked 22 states and Union Territories, including Delhi, to complete preparatory work for the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls at the earliest, noting that the exercise is expected to begin in April. Once the process is finished in these regions, the voter list revision will cover the entire country.

In a letter sent to the chief electoral officers of Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Ladakh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Delhi, Odisha, Punjab, Sikkim, Tripura, Telangana and Uttarakhand, the poll authority said that a pan-India SIR of electoral rolls had been ordered in June last year.

The Commission has already conducted SIR in 13 states and Union Territories and carried out a separate special revision in Assam this year, amid allegations of vote chori raised by the opposition Congress. A similar exercise is now planned for the remaining 22 states and Union Territories in 2026. While the revision process has been completed in Bihar, it is still underway in 12 states and Union Territories covering nearly 60 crore electors. Another 40 crore voters will be included once the exercise begins in the remaining 17 states and five Union Territories. In Assam, the special revision, which was undertaken instead of SIR, concluded on February 10.

The schedule for SIR in nine states and three Union Territories has seen repeated changes due to multiple factors. As seen in Bihar, political parties have also approached the Supreme Court challenging the exercise in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal.

Earlier, while preparing for SIR in Bihar, Election Commission officials claimed that field-level staff had identified several nationals from Bangladesh, Nepal and Myanmar on the electoral rolls. However, the poll body later did not release any figures or documentary evidence related to such claims.

Opposition parties have described these assertions as a pretext to conduct SIR in a manner that could selectively target voters perceived to be unsupportive of the BJP and its allies.