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The rollout of phase III of SIR was delayed due to assembly elections in Kerala, Assam, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal held last month.
A booth level officer (BLO) assists voters in filling out enumeration forms for the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, in Bikaner, Rajasthan. (IMAGE: PTI FILE)
The Election Commission is set to roll out phase three of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the coming days after the exercise was temporarily held back due to assembly elections in Kerala, Assam, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal held last month.
The poll body said the next phase of SIR can now begin as the election process in these states and Union Territories has concluded.
So far, the exercise has been carried out in 10 states and three Union Territories — Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Kerala, Puducherry, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Goa and Bihar.
The Election Commission on Monday said the next phase of the exercise will cover the remaining 22 states and Union Territories, involving nearly 40 crore electors.
A separate “special revision” of electoral rolls was carried out in Assam.
According to the poll body, around 60 crore of India’s nearly 99 crore voters have already been covered under the clean-up exercise.
The remaining nearly 40 crore electors will be covered across 17 states and five Union Territories in the upcoming phase.
According to a report by PTI, the Election Commission had in February directed 22 states and Union Territories, including Delhi, to complete preparatory work related to SIR at the earliest as the exercise was expected to begin in April.
Once phase three is completed, the exercise would have covered all states and Union Territories.
In a letter sent to the chief electoral officers of Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Ladakh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Delhi, Odisha, Punjab, Sikkim, Tripura, Telangana and Uttarakhand, the poll authority said the pan-India SIR exercise had been ordered in June last year.
Over 5 Crore Names Removed During Phase II
Data shared by the Election Commission and state poll officials showed that the combined electoral rolls across nine states and three Union Territories were reduced by 10.2 per cent following the SIR exercise, with more than 60 lakh deceased voters removed from the list.
When phase II of the electoral roll revision exercise was announced on October 27, the total voter base across the 12 states and Union Territories stood at over 50.99 crore.
Following the completion of the exercise, the number has come down to 45.81 crore — a reduction of more than 5.18 crore names from the rolls.
The EC said 66.88 lakh deceased electors were removed during the exercise, with Uttar Pradesh accounting for the highest number at 25.47 lakh, followed by West Bengal at 24.16 lakh.
Apart from deceased voters, another 63.16 lakh names were deleted after objections were raised and adjudication processes were completed during the revision exercise.
The second phase of SIR has now concluded, with final electoral rolls for 10 states and three Union Territories published on different dates.
While the exercise had first drawn national attention during its implementation in Bihar, the second phase involving nearly 51 crore electors has now formally concluded.
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