EC To Announce First Phase Of Pan-India SIR Covering 10-15 States Tomorrow

The Election Commission of India (ECI) will hold a press conference on Monday evening to announce the first phase of a pan-India Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter lists, officials said. The revision is expected to cover 10 to 15 states, including those scheduled for Assembly elections in 2026.

The states likely to be included are Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Kerala, Assam, and Puducherry, along with a few others.

According to sources cited by The Indian Express, the exercise could begin on November 1. Some states where local body elections are ongoing or there are “peculiar circumstances” may be excluded for now.

A senior official told PTI that the EC may appoint volunteers to assist booth-level officers (BLOs) during the SIR in West Bengal.

These volunteers, primarily government employees, will support polling stations with more than 1,200 voters.

The official added that due to a cap on the number of voters per booth, West Bengal may see an increase of around 14,000 polling booths, taking the total from 80,000 to roughly 94,000.

The Special Intensive Revision is a comprehensive exercise where electoral rolls are prepared afresh, requiring all registered voters to submit new enumeration forms. This differs from the Special Summary Revision (SSR), which is conducted annually or before elections and only updates voter names.

Due to the computerisation of electoral rolls, an intensive revision has not been carried out in about two decades across India. In Bihar, for example, the last SIR was conducted in 2003.

(With inputs from PTI)