Election Commission SIR announcement LIVE Updates: 12 including 2026 poll-bound states, UTs to be part of nationwide SIR; Assam exempted

Congress leader Pawan Khera reacts to the Election Commission’s announcement of the second phase of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in 12 states and Union Territories. He says, “The Election Commission is yet to respond to the questions we raised after the Bihar SIR. The Supreme Court had to intervene multiple times as the intentions of the EC and the BJP were not right. In Bihar, 65 lakh voter names were deleted and not a single one was added. Conducting SIR in 12 states now, when opposition parties and voters are dissatisfied, is not right.”

Local bodies elections have not been notified in Kerala; hence SIR has been announced, says CEC Gyanesh Kumar

Final electoral rolls will be published on February 7, 2026

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"All Chief Electoral Officers and District Electoral Officers have been directed to meet political parties and brief them on the SIR process by day after tomorrow,” CEC Kumar says

Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar says, “...In the states where SIR will be conducted, electoral rolls will be frozen at midnight, today. Later, voters will be given unique enumeration forms with all details.”

Ongoing SIR exercise 9th since Independence; last one happened 21 years ago in 2002-04: CEC Gyanesh Kumar

As he began his address a while ago, CEC Kumar said:“Today we are here regarding the the rollout of the second phase of the Special Intensive Revision. I extend my greetings to the voters of Bihar and bow before the 7.5 crore voters who took part in a successful SIR. The Commission also met election officials from all 36 states and discussed the process in detail.”

The poll body officials, comprising Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, and Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi have arrived for the press conference.

Intensive revisions of electoral rolls, in all or some parts of the country, have been undertaken earlier in 1952-56, 1957, 1961, 1965, 1966, 1983-84, 1987-89, 1992, 1993, 1995, 2002, 2003 and 2004. Each revision has reflected the ECI’s evolving priorities — from correcting early administrative flaws to addressing migration, delimitation, and concerns over the quality of the rolls.

In the first decade after Independence, the overriding priority was to fix the rolls used for the 1951-52 Lok Sabha election, which were riddled with inaccuracies and omissions. The Commission’s narrative report of the first election noted that “the final electoral rolls were not always as accurate and satisfactory as might have been desired”.

It attributed these flaws to multiple factors: widespread public ignorance, limited organisational capacity among political parties, and inexperience in the government machinery.

One striking example was the mass exclusion of women before the first Lok Sabha election — many women refused to give their names to enumerators, and instead identified themselves only as “wife of” or “daughter of”.

Political parties, which at the time lacked both structure and familiarity with the electoral process, did not actively assist election officials. This is unlike today, where they appoint agents to aid in the preparation of the rolls.

The situation was further complicated by the absence of an electoral law in the early years, the late establishment of a central supervisory authority, and the lack of time to carry out a thorough verification.

To address these systemic shortcomings, the ECI launched a phased, rotating intensive revision strategy: one-fifth of each state was covered annually between 1952 and 1956 before the next Lok Sabha election in 1957, followed by one-third each year from 1957 to 1961 before the 1962 election, with particular attention to urban and migrant-heavy constituencies that were known for higher rates of voter movement and errors.

Administrative events like the reorganisation of states in 1956 and the delimitation exercises in the 1960s made fresh revisions of the rolls necessary.

By the 1980s, there was a growing focus on preventing the inclusion of ineligible voters, particularly foreign nationals, in the electoral roll — even as the emphasis on guarding against duplicate entries continued.

The ECI began to issue intensive revision guidelines, with specific instructions on “safeguards against inclusion of foreign nationals” — a reflection of concerns that had started to surface in the political discourse.

During this period, the Commission received multiple complaints from Chief Ministers of border states, especially in the Northeast, alleging that significant numbers of foreign nationals had managed to get themselves enrolled as voters.

The ECI at this time firmly articulated the principle that names that were already included in the electoral roll should not be deleted without following due process.

Officers were instructed to uphold the “sanctity” of the existing roll, especially when objections were raised about an elector’s citizenship status. The Commission made it clear that the burden of proof lay with the person objecting to the inclusion, and not with the elector whose name was already on the roll.

In 1993 and 1995, the ECI again ordered countrywide intensive revisions. Although 1993 was the year when Elector’s Photo Identity Cards (EPIC) were introduced under Rule 28 of the Registration of Electors Rules, ECI records from that time do not indicate that EPIC was the purpose of the revision.

Instead, the records note that EPIC details were “also captured” — suggesting that the field verification process of the revision helped facilitate, but was not driven by, the rollout of the photo ID.

Over time, as the quality of the rolls improved and administrative costs increased, the Commission gradually moved towards summary revisions as the default.

But whenever accuracy became a serious concern — due to demographic shifts, political complaints, or structural changes — the ECI returned to intensive methods, adapting them to the needs of that moment.

On June 24, the EC had decided to conduct a nation-wide SIR, starting with Bihar since Assembly polls were due. The last intensive revision in the state was in 2003.

Unlike annual and pre-election Special Summary Revision (SSR) of electoral rolls, where additions and deletions are carried out, under the SIR, the rolls are made afresh, with all registered electors required to submit new enumeration forms. Due to computerisation of the electoral rolls, an intensive revision has not been carried out in about two decades.

“The Commission has noted that during the 20 years significant change in electoral roll has taken place due to additions and deletions on a large scale over this long period. Rapid urbanisation and frequent migration of population from one place to another on account of education, livelihood and other reasons have become a regular trend,” the EC had said in its June 24 order.

Hello and welcome to Election Commission SIR announcement LIVE blog!

The Election Commission (EC) is likely to hold a presser to announce the pan-India Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the voters’ list shortly. The poll body, comprising Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, and Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, will address a press conference at 4.15pm. The invitation for the presser didn’t mention the topic, but officials said it was for the SIR schedule.

Stay tuned here for latest updates from the presser