PTI
New Delhi, Oct 25: The Election Commission (EC) is likely to roll out the first phase of the all-India Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls next week, beginning with 10 to 15 states, including those scheduled to go to polls in 2026, officials said on Saturday.
The initial phase is expected to cover Assam, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Kerala, and West Bengal, among others. These states, which will hold assembly elections next year, will be among the first to undertake the voter list cleanup exercise.
According to officials, the poll body is expected to make a formal announcement on the rollout by the middle of next week. The EC, however, will exclude states currently holding or preparing for local body elections, as the poll machinery there is preoccupied and may not be able to focus on the SIR. The revision exercise in those states will be conducted in subsequent phases.
The SIR aims to update and verify electoral rolls across the country, with a key focus on weeding out foreign illegal migrants by verifying voters’ places of birth. The initiative gains significance amid ongoing crackdowns in several states on illegal immigrants, including those from Bangladesh and Myanmar.
The EC has already held two conferences with state Chief Electoral Officers (CEOs) to finalise the roadmap for the rollout. Several states have also made voter lists from their previous SIR exercises available on their official websites.
For instance, the Delhi CEO’s website hosts the 2008 voter list—the last time an intensive revision took place in the national capital—while Uttarakhand’s last SIR, held in 2006, is also accessible online.
Officials noted that the last SIR conducted in each state would serve as the cut-off reference point for the upcoming revision, similar to how the 2003 voter list in Bihar was used for its recent intensive revision. Most states had carried out their last major revisions between 2002 and 2004.
Meanwhile, Bihar’s voter list cleanup has already been completed, with the final roll—comprising nearly 7.42 crore electors—published on September 30. Bihar will vote in two phases, on November 6 and November 11, with counting scheduled for November 14.
