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New Delhi, Nov 4 (IANS) The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Tuesday launched the second phase of the nationwide voter list cleansing drive, Special Intensive Revision (SIR), in nine states and three Union Territories (UTs).
The massive voter list revision aims to ensure greater accuracy, transparency and validity in the country’s voter database ahead of the upcoming elections.
The SIR 2.0 exercise comes just two days before the first phase of Bihar assembly elections, where a similar revision was made recently.
During that exercise, more than 68 lakh names were removed from Bihar’s voter list after verification, as part of the commission’s effort to remove duplicate, transferred or dead voters.
This phase of SIR will cover approximately 51 crore voters from Tamil Nadu, Kerala, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Puducherry, Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep. Notably, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, West Bengal and Puducherry are among the states where assembly elections are to be held in 2026.
Under the new schedule, the counting process begins today and will continue till December 4, after which the draft voter list will be released on December 9.
Citizens will have the opportunity to lodge claims and objections between December 9 and January 8, 2026, while the hearing and verification is to be completed by January 31, 2026. The final voter list will be published on February 7, 2026.
Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, in a briefing earlier in October, had lauded the efforts of polling officials and voters in Bihar for the successful completion of the first phase. He stressed that SIR, often referred to as a “purification operation”, is vital to maintaining the integrity of voter rolls.
The CEC said that since independence, India has conducted eight SIR exercises between 1951 and 2004, the last of which took place more than two decades ago. Political parties have consistently urged the Commission to conduct such verification from time to time to ensure that only genuine voters participate in the democratic process.
Explaining the process, the CEC said that the enumeration forms will be printed and distributed to all the participating states and union territories. Once the process begins, the voter lists in those areas will be frozen to facilitate accurate updating and verification.
–IANS
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