The Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Punjab will commence on June 15 ahead of next year’s assembly elections in the state.
Addressing the media here, Punjab chief electoral officer Anindita Mitra said the SIR exercise will be conducted across the state over the next four months, with the final electoral roll to be published on October 1 this year. She said that out of a total of 2.14 crore electors in Punjab, the mapping of 1.79 crore, or 83.69%, has already been completed. While 89.58% of the electorate in rural areas has been mapped, the corresponding figure for urban areas stands at 73%.
“SIR will be carried out in a completely transparent manner – the motto being ‘no eligible individual is left out and no ineligible one is included’,” she said.
Punjab is among the 19 states and Union territories where SIR is being undertaken in Phase 3 beginning May 30, according to a notification by the Election Commission of India on Thursday. The schedule has been fixed keeping in view the common field machinery engaged in the ongoing house-listing survey of the Census, which is being carried out in Punjab from May 15 to June 13. Phase 2 of the extensive electoral roll clean-up was conducted in nine states and three Union territories between October 2025 and February 2026.
Sharing the SIR schedule, Mitra said that training of booth-level officers (BLOs) and other preparatory work related to the exercise will be conducted from June 15 to June 24. This will be followed by door-to-door visits by BLOs to households across the state from June 25 to July 24 for filling voter verification forms. She said that all voters in the state will be required to fill out enumeration forms. “For this exercise, the entire election machinery has been deployed, including 24,453 BLOs, 2,476 supervisors, 117 electoral registration officers (EROs), and 234 assistant electoral registration officers (AEROs),” she added. Each BLO has been assigned an average of only 300 households and 1,200 voters.
The chief electoral officer said that the rationalisation of polling stations will be completed by July 24, while the draft electoral roll will be published on July 31. Claims and objections related to the electoral rolls may be submitted from July 31 to August 30, and their disposal will take place from July 31 to September 28. The final publication of the electoral roll will take place on October 1.
{{/usCountry}}The chief electoral officer said that the rationalisation of polling stations will be completed by July 24, while the draft electoral roll will be published on July 31. Claims and objections related to the electoral rolls may be submitted from July 31 to August 30, and their disposal will take place from July 31 to September 28. The final publication of the electoral roll will take place on October 1.
{{/usCountry}}She stated that possessing duplicate voter registrations is an offence under the Constitution and is punishable with imprisonment of up to one year. The assembly elections in Punjab are due early next year.
Detailing the SIR process, Mitra said for the convenience of voters, the current electoral rolls have been linked with the voters’ list based on the qualifying date of January 1, 2003, so that voters in the state do not face any difficulty in locating older electoral records.
She said that BLOs will conduct door-to-door visits for the enumeration process and will contact voters up to three times for collection of the forms. “An indicative list of 12 documents has been provided. However, Aadhaar card will only be accepted as a source of identification and not as proof of citizenship,” she said.
Mitra appealed to all political parties in Punjab to appoint their block-level agents (BLAs) for the smooth conduct of the exercise. She further stated that political parties will be involved at every stage of the SIR process by the office of the chief electoral officer. A meeting with political parties of the state will be held at 3pm on May 15 to brief them in detail about the entire exercise.