As of February 2026, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has initiated the official preparations for the next phase of Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh, in addition to 19 other states and Union Territories, due to begin in April 2026.
The Election Commission of India (ECI) will undertake its third and final phase of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), starting April 2026. This sweeping exercise is in place to sanitize the voter lists with door-to-door verification to root out duplicate registrations, remove deceased or migrated voters, and register newly eligible citizens.
The Election Commission has initiated preparatory activities for the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in 12 States and Union Territories, scheduled to commence in April 2026. Following Order No. 23/ERS/2025 dated 24.06.2025 and subsequent directives, Chief… pic.twitter.com/ayMbyNJB70
— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) February 19, 2026
After the successful completion of SIR in Bihar and the ongoing second phase in 12 other states, this last effort will focus on select locations including Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh. More recently, in communication with the Chief Electoral Officers (CEOs), the ECI stressed immediate preparatory work was needed. It calls for training Booth Level Officers (BLOs) and mapping out current voter data against previous historical records from the 2002–2004 revision period.
The timing is crucial April being close to the beginning of the Population Census 2027 (Houselisting and Housing Census)—and so requires close administrative governance to guarantee that the two exercises don’t mutually disrupt each other, as the government staff (who are primarily school teachers) will work in different areas concurrently.
The ECI has provided some indication of accountability, particularly for states like Karnataka and Maharashtra, where civil society actors have expressed concerns in recent days over transparency in the voter map creation. As the SIR process is a "Special" revision, not a "Regular" update, it is done in order to keep the rolls "pure." This phase will enable the ECI to ensure a national voter database is thoroughly updated and accurate to account for the pace of urbanization and migration within the country during the last twenty years.
