SIR phase 2 to be carried out in 12 states, including UP, West Bengal and MP: EC

The Election Commission on Monday said that the second phase of SIR (Special Intensive Revision) will be carried out in 12 states and Union Territories, including some states where assembly elections are scheduled next year.

During a special media briefing in New Delhi, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar said that the exercise will be held in Andaman & Nicobar Island, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Kerala, Lakshadweep, Madhya Pradesh, Puducherry, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.

He said that the  house-to-house enumeration phase will be held between November 4, 2025 to December 4, 2025. The draft rolls will be published on December 9, 2025 while the final electoral rolls will be published on February 7, 2026.

#SIRPhase2 Schedule #ECI#SIRpic.twitter.com/dkm1VHoVgj

— Election Commission of India (@ECISVEEP) October 27, 2025

Earlier, he said that the poll panel held deliberations with 36 state Chief Electoral Officers following the Bihar SIR exercise.

Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Kerala, Assam and Puducherry are scheduled to go to polls next year. Notably, SIR will not be held in Assam, which will also see assembly elections next year. Kumar said that the revision of electoral rolls in Assam will be announced separately, as the state has separate provisions for citizenship under the law and has already undergone a verification drive to identify valid citizens under the supervision of the Supreme Court.

Kumar said that the voter list of all 12 states/UTs where SIR will be carried out will be frozen at 12am tonight.

"All voters on that list will be given Unique Enumeration Forms by the BLOs. These Enumeration Forms will have all the necessary details from the current voter list. After BLOs start distributing forms to exisiting electors, all those whose names are on Enumeration Forms will try to match whether their names were on 2003 voter list. If yes, they need not submit any additional documents. If not their names, but the names of their parents were on the list, then too they need not submit any additional documents... The voter list of the SIR from 2002 to 2004 will be available to be seen on http://voters.eci.gov.in by anyone and they can do the matching by themselves," Kumar said.

Earlier, on October 6, Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar had announced that the revision of voter lists would be conducted across the country.

The announcement follows shortly after the poll panel conducted the roll revision in poll-bound Bihar ahead of the two-phase assembly elections.

The action came after claims of major anomalies in the state’s electoral register.

List of Indicative (not Exhaustive) Documents #SIR#ECIpic.twitter.com/Pjyp85XVxr — Election Commission of India (@ECISVEEP) October 27, 2025

The SIR exercise saw about 65 lakh voters’ names deleted, with further exclusions and additions, amounting to the removal of nearly 80 lakh eligible voters and a sharp rise in suspected duplicates and fictitious address entries.

The exercise led to a major political backlash from opposition parties, who accused EC of acting at the behest of the government to manipulate voter rolls ahead of elections.

SIR is a comprehensive voter list updation activity conducted by the poll panel, involving house-to-house verification to create a fresh and accurate electoral roll. The process aims to ensure only eligible citizens are included and all duplicates, deceased,and ineligible names are removed from the rolls.

It is called “special” since it is conducted outside the regular schedule (often before major elections) and “intensive” because it involves door-to-door verification, field checks, and cross-referencing multiple records.