New Delhi, July 13: India’s Election Commission has activated its field machinery across states for a possible nationwide revision of electoral rolls starting next month, officials said, in a move aimed at removing illegal foreign migrants from the country’s voter lists.
The Commission’s plan mirrors the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) currently underway in the eastern state of Bihar, where authorities are scrutinizing voter rolls against older lists to identify discrepancies. A senior election official said a final decision on the nationwide rollout would be taken after July 28, when the Bihar SIR case returns to the Supreme Court for further hearing.
Last week, the Supreme Court called the SIR a “constitutional mandate”, allowing the Election Commission of India (ECI) to continue the revision exercise in Bihar despite legal challenges from opposition parties and civil rights groups. Petitioners argue that the exercise risks depriving eligible citizens of their right to vote.
The Election Commission said the revision will involve verifying voters’ place of birth to identify and remove individuals suspected of being illegal foreign migrants, particularly from Bangladesh and Myanmar. The move comes amid a broader crackdown on undocumented migrants in several Indian states.
As part of the process, the Commission is using older electoral rolls as the baseline for verification. In Bihar, the 2003 voters’ list is being used for comparison. In Delhi and Uttarakhand, the 2008 and 2006 lists are being referred to, respectively. Most states conducted similar intensive revisions between 2002 and 2004, and those rolls are now being considered as cut-off references.
Bihar is set to hold assembly elections later this year, while polls in Assam, Kerala, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu, and West Bengal are scheduled for 2026, making the voter list revision exercise politically sensitive.
The poll authority is expected to take a final call on the nationwide exercise after July 28, when the Bihar SIR case will come up again for hearing in the top court, an official suggested.
The proposed nationwide voter list revision, if implemented, would have significant implications for electoral rolls across India, raising concerns about inclusion, exclusion, and the integrity of the voting process ahead of upcoming state elections.
