EC Launches Phase 3 of Electoral Roll Revision Across 16 States, 3 UTs

The Election Commission on Thursday announced Phase 3 of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls across 16 states and three Union Territories , covering 36.73 crore voters , with the exercise to begin in a staggered manner from May 30 .

The states and UTs included in the latest phase are Delhi, Odisha, Mizoram, Sikkim, Manipur, Uttarakhand, Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Haryana, Chandigarh, Telangana, Punjab, Karnataka, Meghalaya, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Nagaland, Tripura, and Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu.

According to the EC, over 3.94 lakh booth-level officers (BLOs) will conduct door-to-door verification of electors, assisted by 3.42 lakh booth-level agents (BLAs) appointed by political parties. The poll panel said the revision aims to ensure that only eligible voters remain on electoral rolls while removing duplicate, shifted, deceased and ineligible entries.

The EC said the SIR schedule for Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh will be announced later due to weather conditions in snow-bound areas.

The final electoral rolls for different states will be published between September 6 and December 23 . Revised rolls for Odisha, Sikkim, Mizoram and Manipur will be released on September 6, while those for Delhi, Karnataka, Meghalaya, Maharashtra and Jharkhand will be published on October 7.

Following a Supreme Court direction during the Bihar SIR process, the EC has now included the Aadhaar card as the 12th identity document for verification.

The poll body said Phase 2 of the SIR exercise across 12 states and UTs led to a 10.2 per cent reduction in electoral rolls, including the removal of over 60 lakh deceased voters .