Election Commission announces Special Summary Revision of electoral rolls for multiple states

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The Election Commission announced on Thursday the annual Special Summary Revision of electoral rolls in Arunachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu, Mizoram, Odisha and Sikkim.

SSR will ensure enrolment of ‘unenrolled eligible citizens’ as of October 1, 2026, besides ‘prospective electors’ eligible on January 1, 2027, and prospective electors on three subsequent qualifying dates – 1st April, 1st July and 1st October, 2027, reported ET, citing ECI.

The annual SSR was halted after the 2024 Lok Sabha elections amid the SIR and has become significantly late ever since, given that the exercise is announced May-June to ensure publication of fresh election rolls, according to the newspaper.

The draft electoral rolls will be published on November 30 of this year, and the final publication of electoral rolls will take place on January 21, 2027.

Applications seeking deletion of repeated or multiple entries are mandated to undergo field verification. Electoral registration officers are required to personally cross-check deletions exceeding two per cent of electors at a polling station or where the same objector filed more than five objections.

The rules allow for voluntary submission of Aadhaar details in Forms 6 and 8, wherein neither applications can be rejected nor can existing entries be deleted if Aadhaar was not produced.

Earlier, the ECI had written to the chief election officers of 17 states and union territories, announcing the resumption of SSR, as well as preparing personnel and resources to facilitate the exercise.

The election body had also introduced additional transparency and participation-linked changes to SSR 2027, sources told ET.

The commission would bring in provisions to provide soft copies of draft as well as final electoral rolls in ‘readable PDF formats’ to all recognised political parties. The parties will also receive ‘addition, deletion and modification’ at the draft stage, a measure not undertaken in earlier SSRs.