Nationwide SIR: First phase to begin on Tuesday; will cover 12 states and UTs, including Kerala, TN, Bengal

NEW DELHI, OCT 27 : The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Monday said it will conduct the second phase of the controversial Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in 12 states and union territories after the “successful” completion of the exercise in poll-bound Bihar.

The first phase of the nationwide SIR, which will be launched on Tuesday, will cover the election-bound states of Tamil Nadu, Kerala and West Bengal.

Addressing a press conference on Monday, Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar claimed, “We successfully completed the exercise of purifying the electoral rolls in Bihar. And the result is before you… there has been zero appeals.”

The CEC announced that the second phase of the SIR will be carried out in “12 States and Union Territories.”

The states which will be covered under the first phase include Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.

Union territories of Andaman and Nicobar, Lakshadweep, and Puducherry will also be covered in the first phase.

As the first step, the voter lists of the states and Union Territories which will be covered in the first phase of the nationwide SIR would be frozen on Monday midnight, the CEC said.

“All voters on that list will be given Unique Enumeration Forms by the BLOs. These Enumeration Forms will have all the necessary details from the current voter list. After BLOs start distributing forms to existing electors, all those whose names are on the Enumeration Forms will try to match whether their names were on the 2003 voter list. If yes, they need not submit any additional documents,” the CEC said.

“The voter list of the SIR from 2002 to 2004 will be available to be seen on http://voters.eci.gov.in by anyone and they can do the matching by themselves,” he added.

The CEC explained that the voters whose parents’ names were on the 2003 voter list also do not need to submit any additional documents.

The revision of electoral rolls in Assam, which was earlier speculated to be included in the first phase, will be announced separately, CEC clarified.

The ECI had in June 2025 announced the nationwide SIR alongside the SIR for Bihar.

Schedule for the SIR

Printing/Training – 28th Oct to 3rd Nov 2025

House to House Enumeration Phase – 4th Nov to 4th Dec 2025

Publication of Draft Electoral Rolls – 9th Dec 2025

Claims & Objection Period – 9th Dec 2025 to 8th Jan 2026

Notice Phase (Hearing & Verification) – 9th Dec 2025 to 31st Jan 2026

Publication of Final Electoral Rolls – 7th Feb 2026.

-PTI