New Delhi, Feb 19 (NationPress) The Election Commission of India (ECI) has commenced the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) procedure for electoral rolls in 22 States and Union Territories, including the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, starting in April 2026. This decision comes as the current revision process in 13 States and Union Territories approaches its conclusion, according to an official announcement made on Thursday.

The upcoming SIR will be conducted in States and Union Territories such as Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Ladakh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, NCT of Delhi, Odisha, Punjab, Sikkim, Tripura, Telangana, and Uttarakhand.

On Thursday, the ECI reached out to the Chief Electoral Officers (CEOs) of these regions, instructing them to finalize the preparatory tasks for the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls promptly.

The advisory issued by Election Commission Secretary Pawan Diwan stated, “As the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in the aforementioned States/UTs is anticipated to start from April 2026, you are urged to expedite the preparatory work related to the SIR exercise.”

Diwan further mentioned that the Commission had previously ordered the SIR of electoral rolls in all States and Union Territories.

“Following this, a letter dated July 5, 2025, directed all Chief Electoral Officers, apart from Bihar, to commence pre-revision activities for the SIR exercise. Subsequently, a letter dated October 27, 2025, announced the SIR exercise in 12 States and Union Territories, which is currently ongoing,” the advisory noted.

Earlier reports from Kolkata indicated that with only three days remaining before the deadline for reviewing voters’ documents submitted during claims and objections hearings regarding the draft electoral rolls, approximately 20 lakh voter documents are still pending re-verification by District Electoral Officers (DEOs).

Sources from the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) office in West Bengal stated that most of these documents pending re-verification involve cases with “logical discrepancies.”

“Micro-observers identified inconsistencies in these documents during the scrutiny process. In such instances, the documents submitted by voters did not align with the 13 documents recognized by the Election Commission of India as valid identity proofs,” a source disclosed.

“Following the micro-observers’ recommendations, these documents were sent back to the District Electoral Officers for re-verification. The Commission has also instructed the DEOs to finalize the re-verification process and submit their reports to the Commission as soon as possible,” the source added.