Nationwide SIR Announcement Today: First Phase to Kick Off in These States; Election Commission to Declare

New Delhi: After Bihar, the first phase of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter lists in other states across the country is expected to begin on Tuesday. The Election Commission has convened a meeting on Monday to formally announce its implementation. This exercise is being undertaken with the 2026 assembly elections in mind, ensuring a complete and accurate voter list.

These states included in the first phase

According to senior Election Commission officials, priority has been given to Assam, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Kerala, and West Bengal in the first phase, as assembly elections are to be held in these states in 2026. Apart from this, SIR work will also start simultaneously in seven or eight other states like Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Telangana, Odisha, and Karnataka. Elections are proposed in these states also in 2026.

The Commission aims to complete the first phase by March 2026. After this, the second and final phase will start in April, which will include hill states like Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim, and all the remaining states and union territories.

Work already completed in Bihar

SIR of the voter list in Bihar has already been completed. The final list of 7.42 crore voters was published on September 30. Voting for the assembly elections in Bihar will be held in two phases on November 6 and November 11, while the results will be declared on November 14.

Work in the second phase in the states with civic elections

Where local body elections are going on or are going to be held soon, the work of SIR will not be done in the first phase due to busy election machinery. In such states, revision will be done in the second phase. Chief Electoral Officers of many states have already uploaded the voter lists after the last SIR on their official websites to maintain transparency.

Commission preparations completed

Recently, the UNAV Commission had held a meeting with the CEOs of all the states through video conferencing, in which indications were given to start SIR soon. The Commission's emphasis is that no eligible voter should be left out of the list and names of dead or transferred voters should be removed. For this, Booth Level Officers (BLO) will do door-to-door verification.
The Commission has directed all the states to completely remove double names, fake entries, and errors in the voter list. Registration of new voters, corrections and disposal of objections will also be done during SIR.