SIR 3rd phase for 23 states, 6 UTs unlikely to start in April

New Delhi: The third and final phase of the special intensive revision of electoral rolls is unlikely to begin in April and may be launched only after June, ET has learnt.

Election Commission of India wrote to chief electoral officers of 23 states and six Union Territories on February 19 to 'complete preparatory work at the earliest', stating that SIR could 'start from April'. However, it is learnt that 16th census exercise, which started on April 1, has come in the way.

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All-important booth level officers (BLOs), crucial to SIR, are usually government teachers/employees and utilised extensively in the census exercise too. Census 2027's ongoing first phase - house listing and housing census - was launched on April 1 and will continue until September 30 with the same pool of manpower.

An overlap with the first stage of SIR, enumeration of each elector spread out over a month, will become challenging for enumerators. Also, SIR takes at least three months and, in reality, it has stretched out even further in the second phase. Phase-II saw several cases of complaints from BLOs on deadline pressures and workload. That apart, this phase has thrown up fresh challenges, making scheduling even more difficult.

Phase-II got caught in litigation and political opposition, with several state governments moving court against ECI over various facets of SIR which often led to schedule changes. Then emerged an additional issue of 'logical discrepancies' in roll documentation in West Bengal. The issue landed in Supreme Court and is still simmering in prolonged and tense adjudications.

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Unlike Bihar's SIR, where ECI refused any deadline extension, second phase has seen several extensions and varied timelines across 12 states/UTs.

SIR phase 2 has also seen several extensions and varied timelines across the 12 states/UTs where it is underway.

The first phase of SIR was surprise launched in Bihar by ECI in June 2025 ahead of assembly elections, sparking a major national debate. While it did not see deadline extensions, SIR Phase 2 which was launched in 12 states and UTs including poll bound West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry on October 27, 2025 has been beset with schedule changes and timeline revisions across states- failing to meet the original February 14 final roll publication deadline.

While West Bengal's rolls continue to be mired in controversies and are being amended by the day, Uttar ‘s final roll publication has been extended as many as four times due to the scale of documentation match required. It is now to publish its final roll on April 10, provided yet another extension is not lining up.