EC to conduct SIR phase 3 across 16 states from May-end

New Delhi: Phase-3 of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls will be conducted from May-end across the remaining 16 states and three Union Territories -- save Jammu & Kashmir, Ladakh and Himachal Pradesh -- the Election Commission announced on Thursday, days after completing polls across five states and UTs, four of which underwent the SIR in phase 2.

The schedule for the three states/UTs left out of SIR 3.0 will be declared later, after due consideration of the weather in the upper reaches/ snow-bound areas, the poll panel said.

Also read: EC rolls out SIR Phase III across India except J&K, Ladakh & Himachal Pradesh


ECI has introduced the term 'discrepancy' in its latest May 14 instructions to Chief Electoral Officers amid the much-debated SIR-related exclusions and adjudications in West Bengal linked to 'logical discrepancy'.

While most of the latest instructions related to SIR 3.0 are largely similar to the 27.10.2025 ones on SIR 2.0, the May 14 one adds that the Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) can issue notice not only to those "who could not be linked with previous SIR electoral rolls" but also to those cases where "there is discrepancy in their linking with the electoral roll of the last revision".

"ERO will publish lists of such persons, to whom notices have been issued, at the places mentioned....", the ECI has instructed. These would include the notice boards of the respective panchayat bhavans/urban local body offices and offices of the block development officer/panchayat officers/urban local body.

However, the kind of 'discrepancy' that is of EC's concern has not been detailed in the May 14 instructions.

Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar meanwhile appealed to all electors to enthusiastically participate in phase-III and fill their enumeration forms.

"SIR is being conducted to ensure that only eligible voters be included in the electoral roll and no ineligible names be included," he said, launching the SIR 3.0 for which state-level training, preparation and enumeration form will roll out from May 20.

SIR 3.0 exercise will cover 36.73 crore electors and be held in stages keeping in view the common field machinery with the ongoing house listing of the Census, the poll panel said.

Final rolls across the SIR 3.0 states/UTs will be published between September and December, according to the EC schedule and have on board 3.94 lakh Booth Level Officers and 3.42 lakh Booth Level Agents (BLAs) of political parties.

The SIR 3.0 schedule will be mainly spread across eight stages and include the next states headed to assembly polls in early 2027 -- Punjab, Uttarakhand and Manipur. Uttar Pradesh and Goa, also headed to the polls, have already completed the SIR in phase 2.

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The first set to take off with SIR 3.0 will be Odisha, Mizoram, Sikkim and Manipur where house to house enumeration visits by BLOs will start from May 30 to June 28 followed by publication of the draft rolls on July 5 and the final rolls, on September 6. Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu will follow with the one-month long enumeration from June 4, and draft and final rolls on July 10 and September 11.

Between September 15 and 22, Uttarakhand, which goes to polls in early 2027 and Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Haryana and the UT of Chandigarh, will have their final rolls in place. Telangana and Punjab will publish the final rolls on October 1 while Karnataka, Meghalaya, Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Delhi will publish theirs on October 7.

Nagaland and Tripura will go last with publication on November 22 and December 23.

Among the SIR phase-3 states, the largest electorate is in Maharashtra at 9.86 crore followed by 5.55 crore in Karnataka, 4.16 crore in Andhra, 3.34 crore in Odisha and 2.64 crore and 2.06 crore in Jharkhand and Haryana respectively. The first two phases of SIR have covered nearly 59 crore electors across 13 states/UTs.