India Launches Phase 2 Voter Roll SIR

The Election Commission of India has launched phase two of its Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls across 12 states and union territories, covering roughly 51 crore voters. Enumeration begins November 4, draft rolls are due December 9, and final rolls will be published on February 7, 2026. Assam has been excluded from phase two because a separate, Supreme Court–supervised citizenship/NRC exercise is concluding and will be handled separately. The ECI has revised procedures after the Bihar round: preliminary enumerators will not collect documents, Aadhaar may be used only as identity (not proof of citizenship), and new forms include fields to link names to previous rolls or relatives. The move has drawn political backlash, with opposition parties accusing the SIR of opacity and potential disenfranchisement after large deletions in Bihar, while the ECI and the BJP say it is a routine cleanup to remove duplicates, deaths and ineligible entries. State administrations are training staff and setting house‑to‑house verification and grievance schedules, and parties such as Congress and Shiv Sena (UBT) say they will challenge any wrongful deletions.