EC Set to Roll Out First Phase of All-India Special Intensive Revision (SIR) Next Week

PTI, NEW DELHI, OCT 25, 2025 :  The Election Commission (EC) is expected to roll out the first phase of the pan-India Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voters' lists next week, starting with "10 to 15 states," including those heading to polls next year, officials said on Saturday.

States such as Assam, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Kerala, and West Bengal, which are scheduled to hold elections in 2026, will be among the first to begin the voters' list cleanup exercise.

The Election Commission is likely to announce the first phase of SIR by the middle of next week, covering up to "10 to 15 states." However, the exercise will not take place in states where local body elections are scheduled, as the grassroots poll machinery is focused on those elections. The cleanup in these states will be carried out in later phases.

The voters' list cleanup in Bihar has already been completed, with the final list, which includes nearly 7.42 crore names, published on September 30. Bihar will hold its elections in two phases, on November 6 and November 11, with the counting scheduled for November 14.

The EC has already conducted two conferences with state Chief Electoral Officers (CEOs) to finalize the SIR rollout plan. Several CEOs have already published the voter lists on their websites after their last SIR. For example, the website of the Delhi CEO has the 2008 voter list, which was the last time an intensive revision took place in the national capital.

In Uttarakhand, the last SIR occurred in 2006, and that year's electoral roll is now available on the state CEO's website. The previous SIRs will serve as the cut-off dates for the new revisions, similar to how the 2003 voter list was used for intensive revision in Bihar.

The primary goal of the SIR is to identify and eliminate foreign illegal migrants by verifying their place of birth, especially as there has been increasing scrutiny of illegal migrants in various states, including those from Bangladesh and Myanmar.