The Election Commission formally announced the second phase of Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in a press conference on Monday. Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar said that in this phase, a thorough revision of the voter list will be done in 12 states and union territories. The objective of the Commission is to ensure that no eligible voter is left out of the list and ineligible or duplicate names are removed. Based on the experiences of the first phase in Bihar, many changes have been made to make the process more smooth and transparent.
SIR will start from tomorrow in 12 states and union territories
The process of SIR will be started from Tuesday in Andaman-Nicobar, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Kerala, Lakshadweep, Madhya Pradesh, Puducherry, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. Necessary guidelines have already been sent to all the states. The voter list of the states where SIR will start will be frozen at 12 midnight tonight. No amendment can be made in this period without the permission of the Commission.
Enumeration form will reach every house
Enumeration Form (EF) for each voter will be printed today (October 27, 2025) itself and BLOs will go door-to-door and give this form. BLOs will visit every house at least three times so that no voter is left out. Voters who are outside their area can also fill this form online.
There will be no need to submit documents in the initial phase
Considering the experiences of the first phase of SIR in Bihar, the Commission has decided that now voters will not be required to require any document in the initial phase. If the voter’s name and his/her parents’ names match with the 2003 list, it will be considered automatically verified.
Training of BLO, ERO and DEO will start from tomorrow
To run the SIR process smoothly, training of Booth Level Officer (BLO), Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) and District Electoral Officer (DEO) will be started from tomorrow. The Commission has also asked all political parties to appoint their Booth Level Agents (BLA) so that transparency is maintained.
The complete schedule will be something like this
Printing and training work will be completed from 28 October to 3 November 2025, after which door-to-door counting of voters will be conducted from 4 November to 4 December 2025. After this, the draft voter list will be published on 9 December 2025. Claims and objections can be filed from December 9, 2025 to January 8, 2026, while the process of hearing and verification of these claims will continue from December 9 to January 31, 2026.
Dates fixed for draft and final voter list
The draft voter list under SIR will be released on 9 December 2025, while the final list will be published on 7 February 2026. Voters whose names will not be in the draft list will be able to check their information on the respective website and apply for correction.
Separate orders will be issued for Assam
CEC said that there are special provisions for Assam in the Citizenship Act, hence separate instructions of SIR will be issued for there. When journalists asked whether BLOs would be given security in West Bengal, the Commission said that it had full confidence in the law and order situation of the state and no BLO would need additional security.
New facilities and instructions for voters
There will be a maximum of 1,200 voters at each polling station. Volunteers will be deployed to help elderly and sick voters. Voters have been appealed to put color photographs on their enumeration forms so that identification is easy. Giving Aadhaar number will be optional, as was kept in Bihar also.
Commission’s message – All institutions are working within the ambit of the Constitution
CEC Gyanesh Kumar said that all the state governments and institutions are following their constitutional responsibilities. He said that under Article 324, the state governments are obliged to give full cooperation to the Commission in preparing the voter list and conducting elections. The aim of the Commission is to prepare a transparent, accurate and updated voter list so that the foundation of democracy becomes stronger.