EC announces SSR in 4 states and 2 UTs; draft rolls on Nov 30

The Election Commission of India (ECI) has ordered a Special Summary Revision (SSR) of electoral rolls in Arunachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, Mizoram, Odisha and Sikkim, even as its contentious Special Intensive Revision (SIR) continues to be under scrutiny.

In a letter dated November 4 to the chief electoral officers of the six regions, the poll body fixed January 1, 2027, as the qualifying date. Polling stations are to be rationalised by November 20 and integrated draft rolls published on November 30. Claims and objections can be filed till December 30, and the final rolls will be published on January 21, 2027.

The qualifying date is the cut-off by which a person must have turned 18 to be eligible for enrolment in a given revision. Polling station rationalisation is done before the draft roll so that no station has too many electors, and so that a booth is not placed far from voters, especially those in remote or newly built areas.

The SSR uses existing roll as its starting point, with existing voters’ names generally carried forward to the draft roll. The exercise will be carried out in every state after the SIR is completed. On October 15, ECI had ordered an annual SSR in 17 states and Union Territories.

Under the SSR, officials start with the existing roll, publish a draft and invite claims and objections. Booth-level officers verify new applications, and electoral registration officers (EROs) decide on them before the final roll is published. In the SIR, however, electors are largely asked to fill enumeration forms and the roll is rebuilt from those forms, with voters having to establish their eligibility.

ECI has also built in safeguards against wrongful deletions, the main complaint against the SIR. The number of Form 7 applications, used to object to or seek deletion of a name, that one person can file has been capped at 10 forms per elector during the claims and objections period, and five per month during continuous updation.

The November 4 letteralso mandated the EROs to personally verify cases where deletions exceed 2% of a polling station’s electors, or where the same person is the objector in more than five cases.

For nearly two decades, summary revisions were carried out annually. ECI, however, broke from that when it ordered the SIR on June 24 last year, deviating from the annual SSRs. The exercise was rolled out in phases, with Phase three currently being underway covering 16 states and three Union Territories.

The poll body said SSR schedules for states where SIR is underway or has just ended, including Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Delhi and Telangana, will be announced later. For Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh, where SIR has not begun, the schedule will be notified keeping weather conditions in mind.

EROs have been told to ensure that no eligible citizen is left out and no ineligible person is included. They must seek applications from unenrolled adults, those turning 18 by January 1, 2027, and advance applications for those turning 18 on April 1, July 1 and October 1, 2027. The poll body has asked for help desks for migrants and special camps for the homeless and marginalised groups. It has also called for targeted outreach to women, transgender persons, Scheduled Tribes, senior citizens and persons with disabilities.

Political parties will get weekly printed lists of claims and objections, along with free copies of the draft and final rolls. Their booth level agents can submit up to 10 forms a day to booth level officers. If an agent files more than 30 forms during the claims period, the ERO or assistant ERO must verify them.