New Delhi: The Election Commission of India (ECI) has initiated the process for the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in 22 States and Union Territories, including the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, from April 2026, as the ongoing revision exercise in 13 States and Union Territories nears completion, an official said on Thursday.
The States and Union Territories where the next round of SIR is scheduled to be undertaken include 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, NCT of Delhi, Odisha, Punjab, Sikkim, Tripura, Telangana, and Uttarakhand.
On Thursday, the ECI wrote to the Chief Electoral Officers (CEOs) of these States and Union Territories, directing them to complete preparatory work related to the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls in a time-bound manner.
The advisory issued by Election Commission Secretary Pawan Diwan stated, “Since the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in the above States/UTs is expected to commence from April 2026, you are requested to complete preparatory work related to the SIR exercise at the earliest.”
Diwan further stated, “The Commission, vide Order No. 23/ERS/2025 dated June 24, 2025, had ordered the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls to be undertaken in all States and Union Territories.”
“In continuation of this, the Commission, vide letter No. 23/2025-ERS (Vol. II) dated July 5, 2025, directed all Chief Electoral Officers, except Bihar, to initiate pre-revision activities for the SIR exercise. Subsequently, through a letter dated October 27, 2025, the Commission announced the Special Intensive Revision exercise in 12 States and Union Territories, which is currently underway,” the advisory stated.
Earlier reports from Kolkata indicated that with just three days left before the deadline for scrutiny of voters’ documents submitted during hearing sessions on claims and objections to the draft electoral rolls, around 20 lakh voter documents remain pending re-verification by District Electoral Officers (DEOs).
Sources in the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), West Bengal, said that the majority of these documents pending re-verification fall under cases involving “logical discrepancies.”
“The micro-observers noticed abnormalities in these documents during the ongoing scrutiny process. In such cases, the documents submitted by the concerned voters did not match the 13 documents mandated by the Election Commission of India as valid identity proofs,” a source said.
“Based on the recommendations of the micro-observers, these documents were returned to the District Electoral Officers for re-verification. The Commission had also directed the concerned DEOs to complete the re-verification process and submit their reports to the Commission at the earliest,” the source added.
(IANS)
