Pan-India SIR: Election Commission to decide dates soon; exercise likely to be held by year-end - report

NEW DELHI: The Election Commission (ECI) is expected to soon decide on the rollout date for a nationwide special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, with the exercise likely to be conducted before the year-end, officials said on Wednesday.With assembly elections due in Assam, Kerala, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal in April–May 2026, the all-India SIR is likely to be undertaken in the coming months, they added.The move follows a day-long meeting between the ECI and state chief electoral officers (CEOs), where senior officials presented the poll body’s SIR policy. CEOs were directed to keep voter rolls from the previous revision ready, with some states already uploading the updated lists on their websites.The ECI has said that after Bihar — where SIR was recently conducted — the exercise will be extended nationwide. For states, the previous SIRs will serve as the cut-off date, just as Bihar’s 2003 voter list is being used for the intensive revision there. Most states carried out similar revisions between 2002 and 2004.The Bihar SIR, announced in June, had faced opposition criticism over its timing, with parties alleging that crores of eligible citizens risked losing voting rights due to lack of documents. The Supreme Court has directed the poll panel to ensure that no eligible voter is excluded.According to the ECI, the primary aim of the intensive revision is to identify and weed out “foreign illegal migrants” by verifying place-of-birth details.(With PTI inputs)