The Election Commission of India has announced the third phase of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls across 16 states and three Union Territories, expanding the voter verification exercise to cover almost the entire country. The poll body said the new phase has been planned in coordination with the ongoing Census-related house listing work to avoid clashes in field operations.
According to the Election Commission, the Phase-III exercise will now cover all parts of the country except Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. The Commission said the schedule for these three regions will be announced later after considering the completion of the Census process and weather conditions in snow-bound and high-altitude areas.
Election Commission of India has directed the conduct of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in 16 States and 3 Union Territories (UTs) as per Annexure-I. pic.twitter.com/5ekmPOJhMo
— ANI (@ANI) May 14, 2026
The states and UTs where the third phase of SIR will be conducted are Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Haryana, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Odisha, Punjab, Sikkim, Tripura, Telangana, Uttarakhand, NCT of Delhi, Chandigarh, and Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu.
Massive door-to-door verification drive planned
The Election Commission said more than 3.94 lakh Booth Level Officers (BLOs) will carry out house-to-house verification of nearly 36.73 crore voters during the latest phase of the revision exercise. These officials will be assisted by around 3.42 lakh Booth Level Agents (BLAs) appointed by political parties.
Calling the exercise participative and transparent, the Commission urged all political parties to actively take part in the process. “SIR is a participative exercise involving all stakeholders, including electors, political parties and election officials. ECI requests all political parties to appoint BLAs for each Polling Booth, in order to ensure full participation of political parties so that SIR is conducted with complete transparency,” the Commission said.
The poll body also highlighted the scale of the exercise already completed in earlier phases. According to the Commission, the first two phases of the Special Intensive Revision in 13 states and Union Territories covered nearly 59 crore electors. More than 6.3 lakh BLOs and 9.2 lakh BLAs were involved in those phases.
Revision work to continue till December
As per the schedule released by the Commission, preparation, training and printing activities for different states and Union Territories will begin from 20th May and continue in phases till September. Door-to-door verification by Booth Level Officers will start from 30th May in the first batch of states and continue till October for later phases.
The Commission also said rationalisation of polling stations will begin from 10th June and continue till mid-October. Draft electoral rolls for different states and UTs will be published between July and October, after which claims and objections from voters will be invited.
The final electoral rolls for Odisha, Mizoram, Sikkim and Manipur are scheduled to be published on September 6. Other states, including Maharashtra, Karnataka, Jharkhand and Delhi, will get their final rolls in October, while Tripura will see publication in December.
Among all states in Phase-III, Maharashtra has the highest number of electors at over 9.86 crore, followed by Karnataka with more than 5.55 crore voters and Andhra Pradesh with over 4.16 crore electors.
The Election Commission said the revision exercise is aimed at ensuring updated and accurate electoral rolls ahead of future elections across the country.
