ECI Publishes Kerala Voter List After SIR, Massive Roll Revisions Across India

The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Saturday released the final electoral roll for Kerala following the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) , removing nearly nine lakh names and bringing the state’s electorate down to 2.69 crore voters . Officials said the deletions were part of a comprehensive verification drive to eliminate duplicate, deceased, shifted and ineligible entries. The Commission has also enabled public verification through its electoral search portal and clarified that eligible voters can still seek inclusion before nomination deadlines for upcoming elections.

Kerala’s update is part of a nationwide roll-cleaning exercise that has led to large-scale deletions across several states. The SIR is a deep verification process designed to improve the accuracy and credibility of voter lists, going far beyond the routine annual revisions.

In Uttar Pradesh , the largest revision exercise so far resulted in the deletion of 2.89 crore names from the draft roll, reducing the electorate from 15.44 crore to about 12.55 crore . Officials said the removals included deceased voters, permanent migrants, untraceable electors and duplicate entries identified through house-to-house verification across all 75 districts. Authorities stressed that the deletions were provisional and that voters were given time to file claims and objections before the final roll is published.

Similarly, Madhya Pradesh saw 42.74 lakh names removed , reducing the electorate from 5.74 crore to 5.31 crore . Officials reported that 22.78 lakh voters had shifted , 8.46 lakh were deceased , 8.42 lakh were untraceable , and 2.76 lakh were duplicate registrations . The exercise also flagged 8.65 lakh “unmapped voters” whose legacy records require verification before final inclusion.

In Tamil Nadu , the SIR exercise led to the deletion of nearly 97 lakh voters , about 15% of the electorate , making it one of the deepest proportional corrections in the country. Election authorities described the revision as a long-overdue clean-up of outdated entries. Comparable exercises elsewhere have reported large-scale corrections, including Gujarat (~73.7 lakh) and Bihar (~65 lakh) deletions, with West Bengal and Rajasthan recording reductions of around 7–8% .

Officials note that leaner electoral rolls may improve turnout ratios because chronic non-voters, duplicate entries and deceased persons no longer inflate the voter base. Even if the number of votes cast remains similar, turnout percentages could appear higher on a more accurate roll.

The SIR differs from the routine Special Summary Revision (SSR) by undertaking a comprehensive door-to-door verification. Booth Level Officers distribute enumeration forms, conduct repeated household visits and coordinate with political party agents to ensure transparency and coverage. The exercise is being prioritised in states with high migration, urban churn and long-pending database verification.

While the scale of deletions has sparked political debate and public scrutiny, election authorities emphasise that the process is designed to strengthen electoral integrity rather than exclude voters. Claims-and-objections mechanisms, continuous updation and verification portals remain available to ensure that eligible voters can be restored before final rolls are frozen.

As more states undergo the Special Intensive Revision, the exercise is reshaping India’s electoral database aiming to balance inclusiveness with accuracy while strengthening voter confidence ahead of future elections.