First Phase of SIR Concludes in Panjab; Concerns Over Voter Deletion

August

2026

Nearly 200K names have been left out after the first phase of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in Panjab, with authorities citing reasons such as permanent relocation, absence, death, and duplicate entries. State Chief Electoral Officer Anindita Mitra said that the house-to-house enumeration phase was completed across all 23 districts and 117 Assembly constituencies. The 40-day exercise began on 25 Jun and ended on 3 Aug, with 19,394,408 electors submitting enumeration forms, accounting for 90.37% of the state’s 21,461,043 registered voters listed on 9 Jun 2026. Mitra said while 93.4% of electors included in the SIR were successfully mapped with records from 2003 or earlier revisions, around 1280K electors (6.6%) who submitted forms could not be matched. Notices will be issued to the unmapped electors starting 13 Aug for further verification when the draft electoral roll will be published, opening the claims and objections window till 12 Sep. Mansa recorded the highest enumeration form collection rate of 96.31%, followed by Malerkotla (94.23%), Sangrur (94.17%), Pathankot (94.12%), and Sri Muktsar Sahib (94.04%). Budhlada Assembly constituency, Mansa district registered the highest collection rate at 96.94%, reflecting strong voter participation. On 5 Aug, Chandigarh Member of Parliament Manish Tewari raised concerns over the SIR, claiming that nearly 210K voters have been removed from the city’s draft electoral roll. Tewari said the number of electors in Chandigarh had declined from 659,805 during the 2024 General Election to 450,282 in the draft electoral roll prepared as of 2 Aug—meaning 209,523 voters have been deleted, reflecting an overall reduction of 31.76%. Describing the figures as ‘very worrying’, Tewari said the extent of deletions in several wards was particularly concerning. The announcement of the SIR was viewed with suspicion in Panjab, with all major political parties except the Bharatiya Janata Party questioning the intent and timing of the exercise. Additionally, the Election Commission of India has carried out rationalization of polling stations across Panjab, increasing the total number of polling stations in the state from 24,453 to 25,332, with the highest increase in Amritsar from 2,134 to 2,240 (earlier coverage).