The Election Commission (EC) will on Monday announce the first phase of the pan-India Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls — a massive voter list cleanup and update exercise being conducted across 10–15 states and Union Territories, including poll-bound West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Assam, and Puducherry, officials confirmed.

According to EC sources, this marks the first intensive revision of electoral rolls in nearly two decades. The move is aimed at creating cleaner and more accurate voter databases by weeding out duplicate, deceased, or ineligible entries, and mapping current electors with earlier rolls.

Key states included and excluded

The initial phase will exclude states like Maharashtra, where local body polls must be held by January 31, 2026, following Supreme Court directives, as well as snow-bound regions such as Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim, and Ladakh.

Unlike the Bihar pilot phase, which began earlier this year through a written order, the pan-India rollout will be announced at a press conference, allowing the poll body to address queries from political parties and the public.

Political backlash in Tamil Nadu

Ahead of the announcement, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK president M.K. Stalin accused the BJP of “plotting to remove names from voter lists” under the guise of the SIR exercise — similar to what he alleged occurred in Bihar.

“It (SIR) deprived nearly 65 lakh voters in poll-bound Bihar of their voting rights,” Stalin claimed, warning that “the BJP and its ally AIADMK believe that if names of voters from the working class, minorities, scheduled castes, women, and the poor are deleted, they can secure victory without facing the people. But this calculation will fail in Tamil Nadu,” he wrote in a letter to party cadres.

Rollout schedule and process

As per EC’s indicative timeline, the enrolment stage for the first phase — which requires electors to sign enrolment forms and submit proof of eligibility if needed — is expected to begin November 1, with final rolls to be published by late January or early February 2026.

The EC has already held two conferences of Chief Electoral Officers (CEOs) in September and October to assess readiness, with the most recent one (October 22–23) focusing on the progress of mapping existing voters to records from the last revision.

Sources said 50%–70% of electors have already been linked to earlier rolls, and booth-level officers (BLOs) have been trained. Political parties have also been urged to appoint sufficient booth-level agents to ensure transparency.

Verification and eligibility

The EC clarified that the list of documents accepted as proof of eligibility will remain largely similar to those used in Bihar’s SIR. Aadhaar will continue to be accepted only as proof of identity, not as proof of citizenship or eligibility to vote.

Officials emphasised that the SIR will be conducted in stages, with subsequent phases covering regions affected by winter, those holding local polls, and states where the mapping of electors is already 75–80% complete.

Confident after the Bihar pilot, officials said the EC expects to produce a “cleaner, error-free electoral roll” nationwide, ensuring the removal of duplicates, illegal immigrants, and ineligible or shifted voters.

Background

The groundwork for this countrywide revision began two months ago, following the EC’s June 24 notification announcing the Bihar SIR. The upcoming exercise will be the first comprehensive voter roll overhaul since the early 2000s, part of a larger effort to modernise India’s electoral infrastructure and prepare for upcoming Assembly and national elections.