ECI declares SIR for poll-bound states including Gujarat, exercise to begin from Nov 4

The Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) on Monday announced the names of the states where the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise will be conducted in the immediate phase.

The SIR will be held in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Goa, Puducherry, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, and Lakshadweep.

According to the Election Commission of India (ECI), the exercise will begin from tomorrow in the 12 states and UTs mentioned above.

Voter List Revision Timeline (2025–26)

November 4 – December 4, 2025: Booth Level Officers (BLOs) to conduct house-to-house visits for voter enumeration and form filling.

December 9, 2025: Publication of Provisional Voter List.

December 9, 2025 – January 8, 2026: Period for citizens to file claims and objections for corrections in the voter list.

By January 31, 2026: District Election Officer and Chief Election Officer to conduct hearings and verify all claims and objections.

February 7, 2026: Final Voter List to be published.

Additional Notes

Eligibility date for inclusion: January 1, 2002.

Citizens can verify details from the final voter list of the 2002–2004 SIR.

Accepted documents for citizenship proof include Indian passport, birth certificate, and 10 other valid IDs.

To aid women, elderly, differently-abled, and senior citizens, NCC and other volunteer groups will assist during the process.

Implementation of “1200 voters per booth” policy with booth rationalisation to ensure all family members vote at the same polling station.

Chief Election Commissioner Shri Gyanesh Kumar emphasised smooth execution of Phase-02, aiming for a “zero appeal” outcome.

The final voter lists will be published on February 7, 2026. 

Although the SIR would be conducted nationally, as indicated by the ECI, in the immediate phase, the exercise would be held for those states where Assembly polls are scheduled next year. 

The SIR has already been completed in the case of Bihar, where a two-phase Assembly poll is scheduled next month.

Unlike the other states of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Assam, the SIR has been a controversial issue in West Bengal on multiple grounds since the beginning, with different political parties holding divergent views over the exercise.

The ruling Trinamool Congress is against the very idea of conducting the exercise and has been constantly claiming that SIR is an indirect ploy of the Union government and the BJP to slap NRC in West Bengal.

On the other hand, the BJP has claimed that the reason why the Trinamool Congress has been opposing SIR in West Bengal is their fear that the names of illegal Bangladeshi and Rohingya infiltrators would be deleted from the voters’ list.

The CPI(M)-led Left Front, though it is not principally against conducting the exercise, has claimed that the exercise should not result in the deletion of names of genuine voters from the voters’ list. In West Bengal, there have also been controversies over the appointments of booth-level officers (BLOs) and Electoral Registration Officers (EROs).

The last time the SIR was conducted in West Bengal was in 2002.

(with inputs from syndicated feed)