Electoral roll revision: what the EC's Special Summary Revision means for voters in four states and two UTs

What the Election Commission has announced

The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Wednesday, 4 November 2026, ordered a Special Summary Revision (SSR) of electoral rolls in four states and two Union Territories: Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Odisha, Sikkim, Chandigarh, and Dadra and Nagar Haveli & Daman and Diu. The announcement was reported on 5 November. The exercise will be carried out under Section 21 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950, and the final electoral rolls are scheduled to be published on 21 January 2027.

The Commission fixed 1 January 2027 as the qualifying date for the revision. That means anyone who is an Indian citizen, is ordinarily resident in the constituency, and will be at least 18 years old on 1 January 2027 can seek enrolment. The Commission has also made arrangements for advance applications from people who will turn 18 on the three later qualifying dates of 2027 — 1 April, 1 July and 1 October — so that young voters who are still 17 can apply early and be added when they become eligible.

In its letter to the chief electoral officers of the six states and Union Territories, the Commission said it had already, on 29 September, issued instructions for a special drive to enrol left-out, young or first-time eligible voters. The Commission said the revision is intended to enrol such voters, and it has asked the chief secretaries of these states and Union Territories to ensure adequate manpower and resources for the exercise.

What a Special Summary Revision actually is

A Special Summary Revision is the Election Commission's regular, periodic exercise to clean up and update the electoral rolls — the official lists of voters for each polling station. Rather than starting over, the revision works on the existing rolls: eligible names that are missing are added, entries with errors are corrected, and names that should no longer be on the list, such as those of people who have died or moved away permanently, are removed.

The process runs in stages and gives voters a formal chance to participate. First, the draft rolls are published. Then a claims-and-objections window opens, during which any voter can ask for their name to be added, corrected or removed, or object to someone else's inclusion. Electoral Registration Officers examine the claims and objections and decide them, and only after that process is the final roll published.

The SSR is normally an annual exercise that follows a November-to-January schedule. It was last held during the November 2024 to January 2025 cycle. The Commission skipped the annual SSR in 2026 — that is, during the November 2025 to January 2026 period — because it was carrying out the Special Intensive Revision in stages. With the intensive revision now completed in these six states and Union Territories, the Commission has moved back to the regular revision process there.

How the SSR differs from the Special Intensive Revision

The distinction matters, because the two exercises work in very different ways. The Special Summary Revision updates the existing electoral rolls through additions and deletions. The Special Intensive Revision (SIR), by contrast, involves preparing the electoral rolls afresh — rebuilding the list from the ground up.

The SIR began in June 2025. Under it, every elector already on the roll receives an enumeration form, pre-filled with their name, Electors Photo Identity Card (EPIC) number, photograph, polling part, address and date of birth. The voter adds a current photograph and a mobile number, and may add the EPIC numbers of family members and, optionally, Aadhaar details. The 2002 electoral rolls serve as the base for the SIR, and people left off the draft revised roll must apply through Form 6 with a declaration linking themselves or their parents to those rolls.

Because the SIR is a much heavier exercise, it has been carried out in phases, state by state. The SSR now ordered in Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Odisha, Sikkim, Chandigarh and Dadra and Nagar Haveli & Daman and Diu is being held precisely because the SIR has already been completed there. In other words, the intensive rebuild is done in these six places, and the lighter, routine update follows it.

Who is affected — and who is not covered yet

The revision directly affects voters in the six states and Union Territories named in the order: Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Odisha and Sikkim, along with the Union Territories of Chandigarh and Dadra and Nagar Haveli & Daman and Diu. Anyone living in these places should check the draft roll when it is published on 30 November and file a claim or objection if their entry is missing or wrong.

These six are in addition to 17 states and Union Territories where the Commission ordered the SSR last month — 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. Assam was included because the Commission decided not to conduct the SIR there. That earlier batch began on 2 November 2026, with its final rolls scheduled for publication on 4 January 2027. Together, the two batches take the total number of states and Union Territories where the SSR is being held to 23.

Not every state is covered yet. In the states and Union Territories where the SIR is going on or has just been completed — Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Meghalaya, Nagaland, the National Capital Territory of Delhi, Tripura and Telangana — the schedule for the SSR will be announced later. The same applies to Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, where the SIR has not yet begun; the Commission said their roll revision schedule will be announced in due course, keeping their weather conditions in view.

The full timeline, date by date

The Commission has laid down a fixed schedule for the six states and Union Territories, and voters should note each date. The rationalisation or rearrangement of polling stations must be completed by 20 November 2026. This is the administrative step in which polling station boundaries and locations are reviewed, so that voters are assigned to the right station.

The integrated draft electoral rolls will be published on 30 November 2026. That is the date from which voters can check whether their name, address and other details appear correctly on the draft list. The period for filing claims and objections then runs from 30 November to 30 December 2026 — a full month for voters to ask for additions, corrections or deletions.

Electoral Registration Officers have been directed to dispose of all claims and objections by 16 January 2027. The final electoral rolls will then be published on 21 January 2027. The final roll, not the draft, is the list that will be used at the next election in these states and Union Territories, so the claims window is the moment to act — a name missing from the final roll cannot be added at the polling booth on voting day.

How voters can check and correct their entries

The first step is to check whether your name is on the roll. Voters can search on the Election Commission's Voters' Service Portal at voters.eci.gov.in, or on the ECINET app, which the Commission launched in January 2026 and which brings together more than 40 of its apps and portals. You can search using your EPIC number, your personal details or your mobile number, and you should note your part number and serial number, which identify your polling station. The voter helpline 1950 can also help.

It is worth checking even if you already hold a voter ID card. The card, officially called the Electors Photo Identity Card (EPIC), proves who you are, but you can vote only if your name appears on the electoral roll of your polling station. A card on its own does not establish that your name is on the current roll, and people who have moved house without updating their address are a common example of voters who discover the problem only at the polling station.

The forms depend on what needs to change. Form 6 is the application for new enrolment, including for a voter who has moved to a different constituency. Form 7 is used to object to someone's inclusion in the roll or to seek the deletion of a name — for example, a family member who has died, or your own name after moving away. Form 8 covers corrections to an entry, shifting residence within the same constituency, getting a replacement EPIC, or marking yourself as a person with disability. Forms can be filed online through the Voters' Service Portal or the ECINET app, or offline through your Booth Level Officer (BLO) or the Electoral Registration Officer's office. Registration on the official portal is free, and after applying you receive a reference number to track the status. A Booth Level Officer may visit your home to verify the details before the application is approved.

One caution applies to objections. Form 7 warns that a knowingly false declaration is punishable under Section 31 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950, and the Commission has directed Electoral Registration Officers to act against anyone who knowingly makes a false declaration, after an inquiry under Rule 20 of the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960. An objection to someone else's inclusion can be filed only by a person whose name is already on that roll.

Why roll revision is contested — and what each side says

Electoral roll revision has become one of the most politically contested issues in India, and the debate surrounds the SIR more than the SSR. The Election Commission's stated purpose is to keep the rolls clean and complete: to enrol every eligible citizen, including young and first-time voters who may have been left out, and to remove ineligible entries. The Commission has said its aim is that no eligible citizen is left out while no ineligible person is included, and it points to safeguards such as the claims-and-objections process and action against false declarations.

Critics, including opposition parties and transparency groups, have raised concerns that large-scale revision and deletion drives can wrongly remove genuine voters. There have been calls for the revision exercise to be called off and for voter lists to be reverted to the earlier ones. One flashpoint has been Form 7: in Karnataka, where the SIR is under way, booth-level officers in Belagavi reported receiving large batches of pre-filled Form 7 applications, some of them targeting voters from minority communities, and one allegation said ten people filed 1,363 of the 1,373 applications received on a single day. Karnataka Chief Minister DK Shivakumar has alleged that some BJP leaders are filing the forms in bulk to remove voters, and has sought constituency-wise data on bulk objections; the BJP has denied the allegations. Similar cases have been reported from Odisha and Uttarakhand, and earlier from West Bengal.

There have also been disputes over the forms themselves. During the SIR, many voters who had moved house said they were pushed to file Form 6, the form for new voters, instead of Form 8, because the Commission's automated system rejects a Form 8 application if the applicant has not submitted a pre-filled enumeration form at their previous address. The Bombay High Court observed on 1 October that this forces a voter who has moved to sign a form for an address they have left, which amounts to a false declaration. The Commission argues that Form 8 assumes the person is already on the draft roll at the old address, and that voters who never reported a change of address cannot insist on Form 8 when Form 6 is available. A transparency group, the Voter Adhikaar Manch, has argued that making such voters file Form 6 treats a long-standing voter like a first-time one.

Neither side's claims settle the question for an individual voter. What is verifiable is the procedure: the draft roll is published, claims and objections are invited for a month, and each application is decided by the Electoral Registration Officer. For voters in the six states and Union Territories, the practical advice is the same whichever view of the debate they hold — check the draft roll on 30 November, and file the correct form before 30 December if anything is wrong.

Editorial disclosure

This article was researched with AI assistance and reviewed by the publisher before publication. Report factual errors through our contact page.