New Delhi, Oct 25: The Election Commission is gearing up to launch a nationwide Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, starting next week with “10 to 15 states,” officials said Saturday. Assam, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Kerala, and West Bengal—states slated for elections in 2026—are expected to be among the first included in the exercise.
Officials clarified that states currently holding local body elections will not participate in the SIR immediately, as the focus of election staff is directed towards ongoing local polls. “In states where local elections are active, the SIR will be deferred to a later phase,” an EC official noted.
Bihar has already completed its SIR, finalizing a voter list of nearly 7.42 crore names on September 30. The state will conduct elections in two phases on November 6 and 11, with counting scheduled for November 14.
“The last SIR in each state acts as a baseline for the current revision,” an EC source said. In Bihar, the 2003 voter list was used in a similar manner, and most other states conducted their last SIR between 2002 and 2004. Several states have since completed the mapping of current voters with their previous lists.
The SIR aims to remove names of illegal or foreign migrants by verifying birthplaces, a step that has gained urgency following recent crackdowns on migrants from Bangladesh and Myanmar.
State electoral offices have also made previous voter lists available online. For example, Delhi’s last SIR list from 2008 is accessible on the CEO website, while Uttarakhand’s 2006 list is similarly posted. Officials have already held two conferences with state CEOs to finalize the rollout roadmap for the nationwide SIR.
