The Election Commission is set to restart the Special Intensive Revision in the coming days, extending the electoral roll clean-up to the remaining 22 states and UTs. With 60 crore voters already covered and 40 crore more to go, the third phase follows earlier rounds that cut rolls by over 10 percent and deleted tens of lakhs of deceased voters, drawing opposition criticism and legal challenges.
The Election Commission of India is slated to resume the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise in ‘coming days’, which was put on hold owing to the Assembly Elections that took place in four states and one union territory— Assam, Tamil Nadu, Keralam, West Bengal, and Puducherry. In a statement on Monday, 11th April, 2026, the commission said that the third and final phase of the electoral roll revision exercise will cover the remaining 22 states and union territories (UTs), involving around 40 crores electors.
The commission said that the next phase of the SIR— which involves the verification and revision of electoral rolls through door-to-door enumeration— can now commence as the election process has concluded.
The exercise, as of yet, has been conducted in 10 states and three UTs— Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Kerala, Puducherry, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Goa and Bihar.
The poll body says that out of the net total of around 99 crores voters in the nation, 60 crore have already been covered in the clean-up exercise via the first two SIR phases. The remaining 40 crores voters will be covered by the upcoming phase.
In February 2026, the EC had directed all the remaining 22 states and union territories to undertake preparatory work pertaining to SIR at the earliest as the exercise was back then expected to commence in April 2026.
The SIR exercise has witnessed frequent changes in its schedule due to various reasons. For instance, political parties in Bihar approached the Supreme Court, challenging the implementation of SIR in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal.
Recently, TMC president and former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee personally appeared before a bench of the Chief Justice of India to oppose the poll roll cleanup exercise in her state.
While preparing for the SIR in Bihar, Election Commission officials had claimed that several nationals from Bangladesh, Nepal, and Myanmar had been identified by its grassroots-level functionaries. However, the poll authority eventually did not provide any numbers or supporting evidence of such ineligible voters on the electoral rolls.
Opposition parties alleged that the EC’s claims were a pretext to conduct the SIR drive with the aim of targeting voters not aligned with the BJP and its allies.
Official data shared by the Election Commission and state polls officials showcased that the combined electoral rolls across the nine states and three union territories were reduced by 10.2% subsequent to the SIR exercise. Additionally, more than 60 lakhs deceased voters were taken off the rolls.
The phase 2 of the SIR was announced on October 27, 2025, and at the time the total voter base across the state and UTs stood at over 50.99 crores. After the completion of the exercise, the voter base had reduced to around 45.81 crore, marking a reduction over 5,18 voters from the electoral rolls.
The EC stated that around 66.88 lakhs deceased voters were taken off the electoral rolls after the exercise. Uttar Pradesh accounted for the highest number of electoral rolls in this category, around 25.44 lakhs, followed by West Bengal at 24.16 lakhs. Furthermore, another 63.13 lakhs voters were removed from the electoral rolls after objections were raised and adjudication process was concluded during the revision.
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