Election Commission Considering Holding SIR In Phases, Deliberations On, Poll- Bound States In 2026 Could Figure In It

Picture Credit: @ECISVEEP/X

Ramping up its preparations for special intensive revision of voter lists across India, the Election Commission top brass  assessed the progress made on mapping the current electors with the voters as per the last SIR in different states.

The exercise will help state poll machinery find out the number of electors who were in the electoral roll after the last intensive revision and continue to be in the latest voter list.

As was the case in Bihar, the voters will not have to submit any documents but only semi-filled enumeration forms.

There is a view in EC that mapping of current electors with those in the last SIR will ensure that more than half the electorate in most states may not give any documents in SIR.

The commission, a statement said, also reviewed the status of appointment and training of district election officers, electoral registration officers, and booth-level officers, and booth-level agents who are appointed by a political party.

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

Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and Election Commissioners S S Sandhu and Vivek Joshi met all state chief electoral officers here to review preparedness.

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.