The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Thursday directed chief electoral officials of 16 states and 3 union territories to begin the third phase of Special Intensive Review (SIR) of electoral rolls, a controversial process that will cover 367 million people between the end of May and the beginning of December as part of a staggered timeline.
Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh have been kept out of the current phase due to ongoing census operations and weather conditions in snow-covered areas, according to the official order issued by the Election Commission of India.
The programme, which was first launched in Bihar late last year, has sparked major electoral and legal controversy, especially after it led to 2.71 million people being disenfranchised in West Bengal during assembly elections last month.
“I appeal to all voters to enthusiastically participate in the third phase of the Special Intensive Review and fill their census forms. The Special Intensive Review process is being conducted with an aim to ensure that only eligible voters are included in the electoral roll and no ineligible names are included,” Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar said.
Read also: Why did the Election Commission exclude J&K, Ladakh and Himachal from the SIR rollout?
Delhi is among the areas where SIR will be conducted.
In D.C., rehearsal will begin on June 30, the draft will be released on August 5, and the final release on October 7.
Delhi currently has 14.8 million people on voter rolls. Among the five regions scheduled to go to the polls in early 2027,
Uttar Pradesh has completed the process and deleted 20.5 million names. The state of Punjab, which has 21.4 million voters, will see the publication of the draft list on July 31 and its final list on October 1. Uttarakhand state, with a population of 7.97 million voters, will see the draft list on July 14 and its final list on September 15. Manipur state, with a population of 2.09 million voters, will present the draft list on July 5 and the final list on September 6. Goa has completed the SIR process at an early stage.
The ECI order stated that the schedule for the third phase of the SIR has been fixed taking into account the common field mechanism with the ongoing census list.
The SIR schedule for Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh will be announced separately after the completion of the second phase of census in these three states and union territories, while weather conditions in the upper reaches and snow-covered areas are also taken into account in the decision. More than 394,000 Booth Level Officers (BLOs) will conduct house-to-house visits to 367.3 million voters across 19 states and UTs.
They will be assisted by 342,000 Booth Level Agents (BLAs) appointed by political parties during the census phase.
The ECI has asked all political parties to appoint BLAs for each polling booth to ensure complete transparency in the SIR process.
Maharashtra leads in polling station deployment with 97,924 polling officers covering 98.6 million voters, followed by Karnataka with 59,050 polling stations covering 55.5 million voters. For the third phase, no MLAs have been appointed in Meghalaya.
