The voter list cleanup has already been completed in Bihar, where the final electoral roll, containing nearly 7.42 crore names, was published on September 30.
New Delhi: The Election Commission (EC) is likely to launch the first pan-India Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the voters’ list next week, beginning with 10 to 15 states, including those scheduled to go to polls next year. According to reports, Assam, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Kerala, and West Bengal, which will hold elections in 2026, are among the first states where the voter list cleanup exercise will begin.
Officials quoted in the reports said the poll body is expected to announce the first phase of the SIR by mid-next week, covering up to 15 states. The EC will not conduct the exercise in states where local body elections are currently underway or are due soon, as the local election machinery is engaged in those polls. The SIR in such states will be carried out in subsequent phases.
The voter list cleanup has already been completed in Bihar, where the final electoral roll, containing nearly 7.42 crore names, was published on September 30. Bihar will vote in two phases, on November 6 and 11, with counting scheduled for November 14. The Commission has also held two conferences with state Chief Electoral Officers (CEOs) to finalise the roadmap for the nationwide rollout.
Several states have already uploaded their latest voter lists, published after the last SIR, on their respective CEO websites. For instance, the Delhi CEO website still hosts the 2008 voter list, when the last intensive revision was conducted in the national capital, while Uttarakhand’s last SIR took place in 2006, and the corresponding roll is available online.
The most recent SIR in each state will serve as the cut-off reference, similar to Bihar’s 2003 voter list, which was used during its intensive revision. Most states conducted their last SIR between 2002 and 2004 and have now nearly completed mapping current electors with records from those years.
The primary objective of the Special Intensive Revision is to identify and remove ineligible or foreign voters, including illegal migrants, by verifying their place of birth. The exercise comes amid a wider crackdown on illegal immigration, particularly from Bangladesh and Myanmar, across several states.
