Election Commission presser today: What to expect?

The poll body is likely to announce the timeline for a nationwide Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls

The Election Commission of India is likely to announce the timeline for a nationwide Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls on Monday evening.

Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar will address the press conference, along with Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, scheduled for 4.15 pm.

The SIR of electoral rolls is likely to be done in phases, with the first one targeting election-bound States and a few more.

Indications are that the Election Commission will conduct the first phase of SIR in five poll-bound States and Union Territories — Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Arunachal Pradesh, and West Bengal — and a few more States and Union Territories where preparatory work is over. Around 10-15 States are expected to be covered in this phase.

Bihar, where Assembly elections will be held on November 6 and 11, has already undergone the exercise. 

The Election Commission has held two conferences with State Chief Electoral Officers (CEOs) over the past two months, with the latest one being on October 22-23, to review the preparedness for conducting the exercise.

Most States had the last SIR of the voter list between 2002 and 2004, and it will serve as the cut-off date, like the way the 2003 electoral rolls were used by the Election Commission for the intensive revision.

States like Kerala and Karnataka had earlier demanded that the SIR be held only after the conclusion of the local body elections. However, sources said, the Election Commission did not directly respond to the demands but told the CEOs that a decision would be communicated to them when the poll body takes a decision.

At the conference held last week, the Election Commission assessed the progress made by States on mapping the current electors with the voters as per the last SIR in different States.

Mapping of voters will help State poll bodies find out the electors who were in the electoral rolls after the last intensive revision and continue to be in the latest voter list.

In a related development, on October 24, the Election Commission informed the Madras High Court that it would commence the SIR of electoral rolls in Tamil Nadu in a week.

The ECI also gave an assurance to the court that it would follow all directions given by the Supreme Court in a case related to SIR in Bihar, while conducting the exercise in Tamil Nadu. The State will go for polls in April-May 2026.