Phase 3 of SIR in 16 States, three UTs from May 30, says ECI

The Election Commission of India (ECI) announced the schedule for phase III of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.

| Photo Credit: The Hindu

The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Thursday (May 14, 2026) announced the schedule for Phase 3 of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in 16 States and three Union Territories beginning May 30.The ECI said that with this phase, the exercise would cover the entire country, except Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. The SIR schedule for these States would be announced later after considering the completion of Phase-II of the Census and due consideration of the weather in the upper reaches or snow-bound areas.The States and Union Territories where the SIR-3 would be carried out in a staggered manner are: Delhi, Odisha, Mizoram, Sikkim, Manipur, Uttarakhand, Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Haryana, Chandigarh, Telangana, Punjab, Karnataka, Meghalaya, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Nagaland, Tripura, Dadar and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu. The combined voter base of these States was 36.73 crore.The final electoral rolls of the States undergoing the SIR under this phase would be published on different dates this year, beginning with Odisha, Sikkim, Mizoram and Manipur on September 6 and ending with Tripura on December 23. The final voter lists of Delhi, Karnataka, Meghalaya, Maharashtra and Jharkhand, would be out on October 7.The exercise had already been conducted in Bihar, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Puducherry, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep. In Assam, due to legalities of the National Register of Citizens (NRC), a “special revision” was conducted.“I appeal to all electors to enthusiastically participate in phase 3 of the SIR and fill their enumeration forms. SIR is being conducted to ensure that only eligible voters are included in the electoral roll,” Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar said.Over 3.94 lakh Booth Level Officers (BLOs) would go house to-house assisted by 3.42 lakh Booth Level Agents (BLAs) appointed by political parties during the Enumeration Phase, the poll body said in a statement.The voter base across the 12 States and Union Territories stood at more than 50.99 crore when phase 2 of the SIR was announced by the EC on October 27 last and now the figure stood at 45.81 crore — a decline of over 5.18 crore, which was around 10.2%.The rules of the Phase 3 SIR would be the same as the Phase 2. While announcing the Phase 2 on October 27 last year, the EC had introduced certain changes with learnings from Bihar where the first phase had been carried out. The most important of them was that no documents were to be collected from electors during the Enumeration Phase. Aadhaar had been added as the 12th document as directed by the Supreme Court, but only as proof of identity and not of citizenship.Fresh voter registrations were also carried out simultaneously during house-to-house enumeration. Published - May 14, 2026 02:29 pm IST