The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Thursday announced the annual Special Summary Revision of electoral rolls in Arunachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, and Daman and Diu, Mizoram, Odisha and Sikkim, where the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls has been completed.
The Election Commission will publish the draft electoral rolls on November 30. The Election Commission will publish the final electoral rolls on January 21, 2027.
For Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh, where SIR has not yet commenced, the schedule for electoral roll revision will be announced separately, taking into account the prevailing weather conditions.
While SIR is being conducted after a gap of over two decades, SSR is held annually, especially in poll-bound States.
In its letter issued to the Chief Electoral Officers (CEO) of the six states and UTs, the ECI said, “To facilitate the enrolment of eligible electors with reference to the qualifying date of January 1, 2027, along with seeking advance applications for the three subsequent qualifying dates of April 1, July 1 and October 1, the Commission hereby directs that the existing electoral rolls shall be revised by conducting an SSR under Section 21 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950, with reference to January 1 as the qualifying date”. While announcing SSR in six states and UTs, the poll authority referred to Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Delhi, Tripura and Telangana, where SIR is either ongoing or has just been concluded; the schedule for the SSR will be announced later.
While SIR is being conducted after a gap of over two decades, SSR is held annually, especially in poll-bound States.
According to the EC, deletion applications must undergo field verification in cases involving repeated or multiple entries. Electoral registration officers must personally cross-check deletions exceeding two per cent of electors at a polling station or where the same objector files more than five objections.
Furnishing Aadhaar details in Forms 6 and 8 will remain voluntary. No application for enrolment can be rejected, nor can an existing entry be deleted, for failure to provide Aadhaar.
The ECI directed that the booth-level officers (BLOs) will hold a meeting with BLAs and brief them about the schedule and process of SSR. The BLOs will review the draft electoral roll with BLAs of recognised political parties in the State and identify the corrections to be made.
It said that, to ensure greater involvement of political parties, it has allowed BLAs of recognised political parties to collect filled forms from electors and submit up to 10 Forms (Form 6/7/8) to the BLO per day. However, BLO shall go and verify the facts of each Form by visiting the address of the claimant/objector as per its applicable guidelines.
The poll panel further said that, to ensure greater involvement of political parties, the Commission has allowed BLAs of recognised political parties to collect and submit the filled forms from electors, subject to the condition that a BLA shall not submit more than 10 Forms to the BLO per day.
“If a BLA files more than 30 applications/forms during the entire period of filing claims and objections, then the cross-verification must be done by ERO/AERO themselves. Further, the BLA will also submit the list of application forms along with a declaration that he has personally verified the particulars of the application forms and is satisfied that they are correct,” the ECI added.
On October 15, the poll authority had announced SSR in 17 states, including poll-bound Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Manipur, Goa and Punjab. In a first, the election body had then decided to share rolls with parties in “readable PDF format” instead of image files.
The Commission has directed chief secretaries of the respective states and UTs to ensure adequate workforce and resources for the exercise.