New Delhi: The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Thursday (May 14) ordered the third phase of its Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, covering 16 states and three Union Territories – an exercise in which 3.94 lakh ground-level officials will scrutinise 367.3 million voters.The revision, timed to run alongside the ongoing Census house-listing exercise, will deploy Booth Level Officers (BLOs) for door-to-door visits across these states and Union Territories: Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli & Daman and Diu, Haryana, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, NCT of Delhi, Odisha, Punjab, Sikkim, Tripura, Telangana, Uttarakhand.Three regions have been left out for now – Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, and Ladakh. The commission said their schedule would be announced later, after factoring in the completion of Census Phase II in those areas and “weather in the upper reaches/snow bound areas.”“I appeal to all electors to enthusiastically participate in the phase three of Special Intensive Revision (SIR) and fill their enumeration forms. SIR is being conducted with the objective to ensure that only eligible voters to be included in the electoral roll and no ineligible names to be included,” said CEC Gyanesh Kumar on the launch of the third phase of SIR.Also read: SIR Deleted Won’t Get Welfare Money, But Those at Tribunals Will, Says Bengal Minister Agnimitra PaulThe exercise will be staggered across several timelines. Odisha, Mizoram, Sikkim and Manipur are among the earliest to begin, with house-to-house visits starting May 30 and final electoral rolls expected by September 6.States like Maharashtra, Karnataka, Delhi and Jharkhand will follow a later schedule, with final rolls due by October 7. In Tripura the process will conclude by December 23, which is last among all the states.SIR Phase three state-specific dates. Photo: ECI.Political parties have been asked to appoint Booth Level Agents for every polling booth to keep the process transparent. Around 3.42 lakh such agents have already been lined up. The commission said the revision is “a participative exercise involving all stakeholders including electors, political parties and election officials.”In the first two phases, covering 13 states and Union Territories with close to 590 million voters, over 6.3 lakh BLOs and 9.2 lakh party-appointed agents were part of the process.Maharashtra has the highest voter count among the states covered in this phase, with over 98.6 million electors, followed by Karnataka at 55.5 million and Andhra Pradesh at 41.6 million.The SIR process was mired in controversies in West Bengal as 2.7 million voters were left to wait for their fate to be decided by 19 judicial tribunals less than two weeks before polls, with even the Supreme Court refusing to grant interim relief. The tribunals eventually decided on a miniscule number of cases before polling day.As reported by The Wire, in 150 seats, more than half of West Bengal’s 294, total deletions were greater than victory margins, and out of these the BJP won 99. In 2021, it had won just 19 of these.Commenting on the SIR process, psephologist Yogendra Yadav told The Wire on May 4, “SIR has introduced a model of curation of voter lists. In this country we knew that voters elected the government. SIR has reversed the process. Now the government can decide who the voters will be. Once that is accepted it completely overturns the presumption of democracy.”Note: There is one correction. The ECI has issued a corrigendum – In Annexure I of the PN [press note], for Tripura, the period for Claims & Objections column is 21.10.2026 to 20.11.2026.