The Election Commission of India (ECI) has asked chief electoral officers (CEOs) in states to be ready for the special intensified revision (SIR) of voter lists by September 30. This suggests that the poll authority could launch the cleanup exercise as early as October.
According to officials, at a conference of state chief electoral officers (CEOs) earlier this month, the EC top brass asked them to be prepared for revision rollout in the next 10 to 15 days. The deadline of September 30 was set for the sake of greater clarity.
The CEOs have been asked to keep voter lists of their states, published after the last SIR ready. Several state CEOs have already put up the lists on their websites.
The website of the Delhi CEO has the voter list from 2008, when the last intensive revision took place in the national capital. In Uttarakhand, the last SIR took place in 2006 and the electoral roll from that year is now on the state CEO’s website. The last SIR in states will serve as the cut-off date, just as the 2003 voter list of Bihar is being used by the EC for intensive revision.
Most states had the last SIR between 2002 and 2004 and have nearly completed mapping of current electors with those as per the last intensive revision. The EC had earlier said that after Bihar, SIR would be carried out in the entire country.
Assembly elections in Assam, Kerala, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal are due in 2026. The primary objective to conduct SIR is to identify and remove illegal immigrants by verifying the voters’ place of birth, a move that gains urgency amid ongoing crackdowns in several states on undocumented migrants from countries like Bangladesh and Myanmar.
The cleanup comes ahead of the 2026 Assembly elections in Assam, Kerala, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu, and West Bengal, where the updated and verified electoral rolls will play a critical role.