SIR explained: What has happened since the voter list revision began
Concerns have been raised that the exercise could remove genuine voters from the electoral rolls and shape electoral outcomes.
Black News 
Since it began in June 2025, the special intensive revision of electoral rolls has faced questions over the manner and pace of its implementation, amid concerns that the exercise could deny genuine electors their right to vote and shape election outcomes.
On Wednesday, The Indian Express reported that some of the concerns about the conduct of the exercise had also come from within the Election Commission.
Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi formally objected at least 14 times in the past 10 months to decisions related to the SIR, saying that some had been taken without their knowledge, the newspaper reported.
The exercise had also been challenged in the Supreme Court, which in May upheld the legality of the voter roll revision.
Even as the case was being heard, the Election Commission expanded the exercise to 12 states and Union Territories, including West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh, in its second phase in late 2025 and the first half of 2026. The third phase is underway in 19 states and Union Territories, including Maharashtra, Karnataka and Delhi.
So far, 13.8 crore voters have been removed from the electoral rolls of 31 states and Union Territories, Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge said on Monday. This accounts for 14.6% of India’s 94.7 crore voters before the exercise began in 2025.
Here is what has happened...
