EC Top Brass Meets State Chief Poll Officers to Discuss Pan-India Special Intensive Revision

Exercise Aims to Clean Up Voter Lists; Rollout Likely in Phases

PTI, New Delhi, Oct 23, 2025 : The Election Commission top brass is meeting its state chief poll officers here on Wednesday to firm up its plans to roll out a pan-India special intensive revision (SIR) to clean up voter lists.

The two-day meet is the second since September to decide on the massive exercise.

Officials said Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and Election Commissioners S. S. Sandhu and Vivek Joshi are meeting all state chief electoral officers here. The confabulations will continue till Thursday.

One strong opinion within the top EC brass is to hold SIR in phases, beginning with the states going for assembly elections next year. More states may be included in the first phase.

At the same time, it will not hold the electoral roll cleanup exercise in states where local body elections are taking place or are due, as the grassroots poll machinery is busy with it and may not be able to focus on SIR, officials said.

Assembly elections in Assam, Kerala, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu, and West Bengal are due in 2026. Besides these five states, SIR could be held in a few other states in the first phase.

A voter list cleanup exercise has concluded in Bihar, where the final list with nearly 7.42 crore names was published on September 30.

The CEC had earlier this month said work is in progress to launch the SIR of electoral rolls in all states, and a final decision on its rollout will be taken by the Election Commission.