Big action in SIR campaign: More than 22 lakh names removed from draft voter list of 4 states, till now about 6 crore names deleted in 13 states

Knews Desk- Run by the Election Commission with the aim of making the voter list updated and more accurate across the country. Special Intensive Revision (SIR) Under the campaign, draft voter lists of four states have been released. According to the Commission, names of more than 22 lakh voters have been removed from the new draft list released in Odisha, Manipur, Mizoram and Sikkim. However, those whose names have been removed from the list will be given an opportunity to get their names re-included by registering their claims or objections before the release of the final list.

The Election Commission has clarified that this is only a preliminary draft list. The final voter list will be published only after all claims and objections are settled. The Commission says that the purpose of this process is to retain only eligible and genuine voters in the list. The SIR campaign was launched in June 2025. Under this, the Commission is conducting comprehensive verification of voter lists in various states. According to the data of the Commission, till now the names of about 6 crore voters have been removed from the voter list during this campaign in 13 states.

If we look at the state-wise figures, names of maximum 65 lakh voters have been removed from the list in Bihar. After this, names of 37 lakh voters in West Bengal and 25 lakh voters in Uttar Pradesh were deleted. In the latest phase, more than 22 lakh names have been removed from the draft lists of Odisha, Manipur, Mizoram and Sikkim. Currently, the Election Commission is running the SIR campaign in 16 states and four union territories. The states where this process is underway include Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Haryana, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Odisha, Punjab, Sikkim, Tripura, Telangana and Uttarakhand. Apart from this, voter lists are also being revised in Union Territories like Delhi, Chandigarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu.

According to the Election Commission, the main objective of the SIR campaign is to remove the names of dead, transferred or ineligible voters from the voter list and include the names of eligible citizens. The Commission says that periodic verification of voter lists is necessary to ensure fair and transparent elections. Political controversy has also arisen regarding this process. Recently, 23 opposition parties associated with the India Alliance have written a letter to the Chief Justice of India raising questions on the transparency of the SIR campaign. The opposition alleges that in many states the names of voters are being removed arbitrarily and the entire process is not transparent enough.

At the same time, the Election Commission remains firm on its stand. The Commission says that it has the right to revise the voter list under the Constitution and law. In May 2026, a bench headed by Chief Justice Justice Surya Kant of the Supreme Court had also validated this right of the Election Commission in its decision. The court had said that periodic revision of the voter list is part of the constitutional responsibility of the Election Commission to ensure free and fair elections. Now everyone’s eyes are on the final voter list of those states, which will be released after the claims and objections are settled.