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New Delhi: The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Monday (October 27) announced that the nationwide special intensive revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls will commence with 12 states and union territories in what it termed as the “second phase” of the exercise that first began in Bihar in June and ended last month. 

The SIR will be conducted in Goa, Puducherry, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and Lakshadweep. It will start from November 4 and the draft roll will be published on December 9. The final electoral rolls will be published on February 7.

While Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar said that voter rolls are revised before any election, the poll body decided to leave out Assam that goes to the polls next year, while including other poll-bound states including West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala that have elections scheduled in 2026.

In a departure from the contentious SIR exercise in Bihar, in which the Election Commission faced criticism for its list of 11 documents that could be provided as proof for inclusion in the electoral rolls, this time ECI has said that no supportive documents will be required in the period of collection of enumeration forms. It has also included Aadhaar as the 12th document among its list of indicative documents that can be provided as proof.

While announcing the commencement of the nationwide exercise, the presentation made no mention of the reason for Assam’s non-inclusion. However, in response to a question during the question-answer session, CEC Kumar said that the poll body has decided to leave it out, citing different citizenship criteria.

“There has been quite a lot of discussion on the need for the SIR. But the Election Commission would like to inform that under electoral laws, before every election it is necessary to revise........

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