As the third phase of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls nears its end, more than 6 crore names have been deleted from the voters’ registry as per the draft lists published so far.The third phase was carried out in 16 States and 3 Union Territories. Draft rolls of all these States have been published, except for Nagaland and Tripura, which will be out on September 20 and October 21, respectively. The draft rolls for Delhi and Maharashtra were published on Monday (August 31, 2026).Out of a total of 36.08 crore names that were on the electoral rolls in these States, 29.93 crore have been retained, while 6.15 crore, or 17.04%, have been removed in the draft rolls.However, the numbers in the final voter lists could be different, as the Election Commission of India (ECI) provides a window for people to submit claims and objections for additions and deletions from the draft, as well as for the registration of new voters. The final rolls will start coming in on September 6, with Mizoram, Sikkim and Manipur set to be the first States to publish their lists.The States and UTs where SIR-3 is being carried out are Delhi, Odisha, Mizoram, Sikkim, Manipur, Uttarakhand, Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Haryana, Chandigarh, Telangana, Punjab, Karnataka, Meghalaya, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Nagaland, Tripura, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, and Daman and Diu. Out of these, draft lists are awaited only in the cases of Nagaland and Tripura.States with most deletionsIn the draft rolls, Delhi has the highest deletions in percentage terms, at 32.78%, while Maharashtra saw the most names removed in terms of absolute numbers, at 2.06 crore.In Maharashtra, the total electors in the draft list were 7,71,65,562, down from 9,78,54,049 in the previous rolls, amounting to the removal of approximately 21.15% of names. In Delhi, the total number of electors in the previous rolls was 1,45,10,299, out of which enumeration forms were collected from 97,53,577, or 67.22%, leading to the removal of 47,56,722 names.Delhi was closely followed by Dadra and Nagar Haveli, and Daman and Diu for the highest percentage of deletions. In absolute numbers, Karnataka had the second-most deletions, at 1.07 crore, after Maharashtra. Telangana has the third-highest number of deletions, with 73,39,235 names removed, followed by Delhi, Andhra Pradesh (44,89,512) and Jharkhand (43,61,987). In Haryana, 33.83 lakh names were deleted in the draft list, while Punjab saw 20,66,635 deletions and Odisha 20,12,557.Sikkim has the fewest number of deletions at 37,724, followed by Mizoram at 46,162. Strife-torn Manipur saw 1,58,677 (7.5%) deletions. The deletions in Chandigarh were 66,181 (12.8%). Meghalaya saw 1,80,402 (7.67%), Arunachal Pradesh 1,69,459 (19.09 %), and Uttarakhand 8,26,977 (10.39%) deletions.CMs write to CECIn a letter to Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar, Karnataka Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar has raised serious concerns over what he called the “massive and unjustified” voter deletions under the SIR process, urging the EC to extend the claims and objections window. Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy has also done the same.The SIR exercise has already been conducted in Bihar, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Puducherry, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Goa, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and Lakshadweep. In Assam, due to the legalities of the National Register of Citizens (NRC), a “special revision” of electoral rolls was conducted instead of SIR.With the third phase, the SIR exercise has covered most of the country, except Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh. The SIR schedule for these will be announced later, after the completion of Phase II of the Census, and with due consideration of the weather in the upper reaches or snow-bound areas, the ECI had said earlier.The SIR process has led to acrimony between Opposition parties and the ECI, and it has also been challenged in courts. In March, the Supreme Court unanimously upheld the constitutional validity of the ECI’s move to carry out the SIR exercise.