The Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls has now rolled into another batch of States and Union Territories after creating a new electoral roll in Bihar, a State which is now in the midst of its elections. The Election Commission of India (ECI)-ordered SIR in nine States and three Union Territories, as part of a staggered pan-India exercise, began on November 4, 2025. Being held in Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat and the Union Territories of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep and Puducherry, this phase includes some States which go to the polls next year, but excludes Assam (also poll-going), where issues of citizenship are on a different legal track.
The post-enumeration draft roll will be released on December 9, 2025, while the final roll will be released on February 7, 2026. This is only the ninth SIR in India’s 75-year-old electoral history and the first one after 21 years. In June 2025, the ECI had decided to commence intensive revision ‘in the entire country’, also confirming that the schedule for all States ‘shall be issued separately’ after dealing with the immediate demands of Bihar. The ECI has ordered the respective governments to provide the workforce for SIR operations and not shift any officials connected with SIR work.
No one size fits all
Under this SIR, 51 crore electors will be brought under intensive review — more than half the country’s total electorate, spreading over 321 districts and 1,843 Assembly constituencies. It will involve 5.33 lakh polling stations and an equal number of Booth Level Officers (BLOs) and over 7.64 lakh booth level agents of political parties — a number which should see an upsurge as parties would be keen to safeguard their interests.
No two elections in India’s long history of 18 national and over 400 Assembly elections were the same. This applies equally to the SIR in terms of upcoming challenges. The current ruling dispensations in Tamil Nadu and Kerala have taken a dim view of the SIR. The responses from West Bengal, with 7.7 crore electors, have been more combative; it is also a State with a large number of constituencies bordering Bangladesh, where the issues of infiltration and citizenship are in focus. Uttar Pradesh, with 15.44 crore electors, and social complexities will not be a cakewalk either. The burden of migrations that electoral roll managers faced in Bihar does not hold true in other States. The efficiency of past summary revisions could differ from State to State, determining the quantum of the task. A statutory process such as a SIR has a certain uncompromising standardisation, but procedures may still require local customisation.
A friendlier template
Bihar was a tough assignment being the first SIR exercise after two decades, and which saw protests and doubts. The foundational lines have been drawn now. Article 326 of the Constitution that defines an elector is getting highlighted as an equal truth as Article 324 in running elections. A SIR is legitimate but genuine electors need to be facilitated using a time frame that is adequate.
Transparency levels should satisfy citizen and political party. The clear order from the ECI, that “No document is to be collected from electors during the Enumeration Phase”, should be a respite for millions of ordinary voters who are apprehensive the moment the word ‘document’ is mentioned. The draft roll will include all those whose signed enumeration forms, further rationalised and partly pre-filled, are received.
Only those electors whose names could not be matched/linked with previous SIR will be notified and heard before the registration official who decides on either inclusion or exclusion. Three visits to the house of each elector by the BLO is reassuring. The familiar Form 6 for new enrolment, Form 7 for deletion and Form 8 for correction will remain in place. Critics of the SIR have reasons to be satisfied with the modifications they could orchestrate; they should walk the next steps without grudge or imaginary fear.
Electoral roll management, largely a technical exercise, becomes cluttered when it becomes an echo chamber for issues such as infiltration or disenfranchisement that are hyped. The SIR is essentially a clean up exercise. The pan-India picture will hopefully not cause any shock this time. The bulk of exclusion will always come from death, absence, shifting or duplication. The SIR method is different but complementary to the ECI’s innovative efforts in a mobilisation of voters for registration and turnout in recent years. Voter turnout in the first phase of the Bihar election has proved this. The Supreme Court of India and other stakeholders have been concerned that the right of any voter should not be denied while trimming the flab. Under the SIR, BLOs have been specially directed to have at least 30 blank forms to facilitate the enrolment of new voters.
An issue past debate
The SIR is a fait accompli and is past debate. An electoral roll that has been intensely revised is now a reality right up to polling day and the polling compartment. Political parties have changed their tune. From the ‘Stop SIR’ call, political parties are moving to make the best out of the exercise, even if they maintain their ideological opposition to it and still explore legal remedies. If parties in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and West Bengal have genuine fears about the exclusion of eligible people even as they go ahead with poll preparation, they need to act. They need to participate in the implementation of the SIR and make use of the decentralised structure of checks and balances and grievance mitigation.
More than the Supreme Court’s sanction of the legitimacy of the SIR process, it is the ‘zero appeals’ in the Bihar process and field-level collaboration seen by party functionaries (notwithstanding political statements at the top) which will make election managers feel more confident in taking the SIR forward. When asked about possible resistance from States such as West Bengal, the Chief Election Commissioner, Gyanesh Kumar, pointed to the architecture of constitutional roles and duties and hoped for its seamless working.
While the fundamentals of the SIR have been validated, there will be hurdles in the execution in scale. It is here that the ECI will need to show skill and empathy. The ECI’s legacy of competence demands that it should work continuously to uphold the trust of voters. It won the trial in Bihar and the new pan-India SIR will be another test case.
Akshay Rout is former Director General, Election Commission of India. The views expressed are personal