Election Commission Plans Special Summary Revision in 17 States, UTs to Expand Voter Enrolment

EC Orders Special Voter Roll Revision in 17 States, UTs, Sets January 2027 Deadline

The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Thursday ordered a Special Summary Revision (SSR) of electoral rolls across 17 states and Union Territories, aiming to enrol new voters and include eligible electors who may have been left out during the contentious Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise.

The revision will cover states including West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Bihar and Tamil Nadu. January 1, 2027, has been fixed as the qualifying date for voter eligibility. The draft electoral rolls will be published on November 12, while the final rolls are scheduled for release on January 4, 2027. Uttar Pradesh and Punjab are due to hold Assembly elections by February 2027.

The decision comes amid growing opposition to the SIR process, with opposition parties alleging that eligible voters risk being excluded because of deletions during the exercise. A key point of contention has been the additional declaration required alongside Form 6 during the SIR, which asked applicants to link their parents to the previous intensive revision conducted nearly two decades ago.

The INDIA bloc parties and the youth group Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) have been protesting in the national capital over the issue and demanding the removal of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.

The October 15 order referred to the Election Commission’s September 29 instructions to state-level officials to conduct a special drive to enrol eligible voters who had been left out, young electors and first-time voters.

The 17 states and UTs included in the exercise are Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Kerala, Lakshadweep, Madhya Pradesh, Manipur, Puducherry, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and West Bengal.

Eligible individuals seeking inclusion in the electoral rolls will have to submit Form 6. The latest order does not mention the additional declaration that had become a major source of controversy during the SIR exercise.

In a clarification issued on October 7, the Commission had stated that the declaration was an additional requirement applicable only in states and UTs where the SIR was being conducted. During periods without an SIR, the standard forms prescribed under the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, would continue to apply.

The additional declaration issue is also among the matters being considered by the Supreme Court.

EC Introduces Safeguards Against Wrongful Voter Deletions

The Commission’s order lays down several safeguards intended to prevent the arbitrary removal of eligible voters from electoral rolls.

Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) will be required to personally cross-verify deletion cases when the number of proposed deletions exceeds 2% of the total electorate. Similar scrutiny will be mandatory when a single individual files objections in more than five cases.

The order also refers to the Commission’s October 9 directive limiting the number of Form 7 applications that an individual elector can submit. Form 7 is used to seek the deletion of a name from the electoral roll, and the restriction is intended to discourage the bulk filing of objections.

The EC has specified that the names of electors who have permanently shifted or died can be deleted only after a Form 7 application has been received. In every deletion case, the ERO must issue a reasoned order after giving the person concerned an opportunity to be heard. The order must also be uploaded to the ECINET platform.

Booth Level Agents (BLAs) representing recognised political parties will be permitted to submit up to 10 forms daily to a Booth Level Officer (BLO). If an agent submits more than 30 forms during the claims and objections period, the ERO will have to conduct personal cross-verification.

To improve transparency, lists of claims and objections must be published on the websites of Chief Electoral Officers and shared with political parties every week.

SSR Schedule for Other States to Be Announced Later

The Election Commission clarified that the schedule for the Special Summary Revision would be announced separately for states and UTs where the SIR is ongoing or has recently been completed.

These include Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu, Haryana, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, the National Capital Territory of Delhi, Odisha, Sikkim, Tripura and Telangana.

For Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh, where the SIR has not yet begun, the schedule for electoral roll revision will be announced in due course, taking local weather conditions into account.

The latest decision seeks to expand voter enrolment while introducing additional checks against wrongful deletions, as the controversy surrounding the SIR continues to intensify ahead of upcoming Assembly elections.