New Delhi, May 14
Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh will be among the key regions in the Election Commission’s next nationwide voter roll revision, which begins on May 30 under the third phase of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR). The exercise will cover 16 states and three Union Territories in total, reaching more than 36.7 crore voters through a large-scale verification drive aimed at updating and cleaning electoral records across the country.
Officials said the process will involve door-to-door visits by around 3.94 lakh Booth Level Officers, who will verify voter details at households. They will be supported by over 3.42 lakh Booth Level Agents appointed by political parties. Alongside Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh, the exercise will be carried out in Delhi, Odisha, Mizoram, Sikkim, Manipur, Uttarakhand, Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Meghalaya, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Nagaland, Tripura, and the Union Territories of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu.
The Commission said the schedule for Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh will be announced separately due to weather conditions in high-altitude and snow-bound regions. Once this phase is completed, nearly the entire country will have been covered, except these areas. The timing of the revision has been aligned with the ongoing household listing phase of the national census, allowing field staff to be used jointly for both exercises.
Final electoral rolls will be published in stages later this year. Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh are expected to be part of the later publication cycle along with other states, with the process concluding in December. The Election Commission said earlier phases of the SIR have already been completed in several states, where large-scale corrections were made to voter lists.
In the previous phase, officials reported a reduction of more than 10% in electoral rolls after the removal of duplicate and deceased voters. Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar has urged citizens to actively participate, saying the exercise is intended to ensure that only eligible voters remain on the electoral rolls.
