The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Wednesday, May 14, announced the launch of the third phase of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls across 16 states and three Union Territories.
House-to-house visits by BLOs will be conducted between June 15 to July 14 in Andhra, June 25 to July 24 in Telangana, and June 30 to July 29 in Karnataka.
The draft electoral roll in Andhra will be published on July 21, in Telangana on July 31, and in Karnataka on August 5.
The windows for filing claims and objections are: Andhra Pradesh (July 21 to August 20), Telangana (July 31 to August 30) and Karnataka (August 5 to September 4).
The final electoral roll will be published for Andhra Pradesh on September 22, for Telangana on October 1, and Karnataka on October 7.
The phase III schedule of the SIR will cover Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, Delhi, Haryana, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Odisha, Punjab, Sikkim, Tripura, Telangana and Uttarakhand, in a phased manner through the rest of 2026.
Approximately 36.73 crore voters are expected to be covered in this phase.
With the commencement of phase III, the SIR exercise will effectively cover the entire country, except for Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, and Ladakh.
The Commission said the schedule for these three regions will be announced at a later stage after taking into account the completion of Phase-II of the census exercise, as well as weather-related challenges in upper reaches and snow-bound areas.
The ECI said the schedule for phase III of SIR has been finalised while keeping in view the availability of the common field machinery currently engaged in the ongoing census house-listing operations.
So far, SIR has been carried out in 10 states and three UTs – Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Kerala, Puducherry, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Goa and Bihar.
The SIR process has been criticised and challenged by various opposition parties and activists, alleging irregularities and mass deletions of legitimate voters.
