Nearly 8% of voters removed from final electoral lists across 9 States and U.T.s in SIR second phase

Nearly 8% of voters person been removed crossed 9 States and Union Territories successful the last electoral rolls published aft the 2nd signifier of the special intensive revision (SIR).

While the last lists of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, Andaman and Nicobar, Chhattisgarh, and Goa were published connected Saturday (February 21, 2026), that of Gujarat were released connected February 17 and Puducherry and Lakshadweep connected February 14.

The combined fig of voters successful the 9 States and U.T.s stood astatine 21,45,62,215 arsenic connected October 27 erstwhile the 2nd signifier of the SIR was announced pursuing the completion of the workout successful Bihar. After the revision, the elector spot for these entities came down to 19,75,33,701 with nett deletions of 1,70,28,514 oregon 7.93 %.

Final lists of West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu are yet to beryllium published.

While Gujarat saw the astir elector deletions among States with 13.40% of voters removed from the last list, Kerala marked the slightest fig of deletions astatine 3.22%. Among Union Territories, Andaman and Nicobar saw the astir deletions astatine 16.87% and Lakshadweep the slightest astatine 0.36%.

Voter deletions successful Chhattisgarh stood astatine 11.77%, Goa astatine 10.76%, Puducherry astatine 7.5%, Madhya Pradesh astatine 5.96%, and Rajasthan astatine 5.74%.

The last database for Uttar Pradesh is scheduled to travel retired connected April 10 aft galore extensions, and the database for Tamil Nadu is acceptable to beryllium published connected February 23.

In West Bengal, wherever the SIR has witnessed aggravated litigation betwixt the Election Commission and the State government, the Supreme Court has allowed the last database beryllium published connected February 28.

However, the apical tribunal besides took an “extraordinary” determination to impact the judiciary successful the ongoing exercise, saying the persistent “trust deficit” betwixt the Mamata Banerjee authorities and the Election Commission (EC) has led to a “stalemate”, with clip moving out.

The tribunal projected shifting urgent cases pending with the deployed judicial officers to different courts for a play of a week oregon 10 days “by which the full process [SIR] is required to beryllium completed”.

The SIR was archetypal conducted successful Bihar past twelvemonth up of its Assembly predetermination and the elector database decreased from 7.89 crore successful June 2024 to 7.43 crore successful September 2024. In Assam, a peculiar revision of elector rolls was conducted and full fig of voters fell by 2.43 lakh.

The EC has asked the remaining 22 States and Union Territories to implicit each preparatory enactment related to the SIR astatine the earliest with the revision “expected to commencement from April 2026”.