Of those deleted in SIR so far, over 71% in ‘absent, shifted or others’ category
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Many from civil society and the Opposition have demanded that the SIR process be scrapped and all the deleted names be added back into the rolls. File | Photo Credit: Velankanni Raj B
Out of the nearly 13.3 crore names deleted from electoral rolls across the country so far in the special intensive revision (SIR) process, around 9.5 crore, or over 71%, were marked in the ‘absent, shifted, and others’ category, according to data from the Election Commission (EC). Of the remaining, around 2.7 crore, or just over 20%, were deleted due to death, and approximately 1.01 crore (7.6%) were flagged as cases of multiple entry.
In effect, this means that many of the 9.5 crore in the ‘absent, shifted, and others’ category could potentially be back in voters’ lists once the SIR process is completed.
In the first two phases of the SIR, which were conducted in Bihar and the 12 other States and Union Territories, out of the total 7.2 crore names deleted after the enumeration period, the number of names in the absent, shifted and others category was around 5 crore, the dead were 1.6 crore and cases of multiple entries were around 52 lakh.
In the third phase, the absent, shifted, and others category had 4.5 crore names, while 1.1 crore were found to have died and there were 49.6 lakh cases of multiple entries. The total number deleted in this phase was 6.1 crore.
Many of those deleted from the rolls under the absent, shifted, and others category could potentially return to voters’ lists by filling Form 6, which is generally used for fresh voter registrations, but has been used by the EC to get people whose names were deleted back into electoral rolls during the SIR.
In Phases 1 and 2, around 1.4 crore voters were added to the rolls in the final list, but there is no cumulative number showing how many were fresh voters and how many were added back after being deleted during the enumeration period. The final cumulative list of Phase 3 is awaited.
Many from civil society and the Opposition have demanded that the SIR process be scrapped and all the deleted names be added back into the rolls. The Congress, after its CWC meeting on Tuesday (September 29, 2026), demanded that all 13.3 crore names be added back to the voters’ lists. The party has announced nationwide agitations at state and district levels with INDIA bloc allies.
The States and UTs where the SIR Phase 3 is being carried out are Delhi, Odisha, Mizoram, Sikkim, Manipur, Uttarakhand, Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Haryana, Chandigarh, Telangana, Punjab, Karnataka, Meghalaya, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Nagaland, Tripura, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, and Daman and Diu.
The SIR exercise has already been conducted in Bihar, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Puducherry, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep. In Assam, due to the legalities of the National Register of Citizens (NRC), a “special revision” was conducted instead of an SIR.
With Phase 3, the exercise covers the entire country except Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.
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