'Special Revision' of voter list in Assam ordered; final roll on Feb 10, 2026

New Delhi, Nov 17 (PTI) The Election Commission on Monday ordered 'Special Revision' of electoral rolls in Assam and the final voter list will be published on February 10, 2026.

According to instructions issued by the poll panel for the chief electoral officer of Assam, January 1, 2026 will be the qualifying date for the state to carry out the Special Revision.

According to officials, the Special Revision stands somewhere between the annual special summary revision and the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.

"It is in a way an upgrade of special summary revision... instead of enumeration forms, booth-level officers will verify electors on a pre-filled register," a senior functionary explained.

"There are special provisions for citizenship in Assam. The verification of citizenship is already being done under the supervision of Supreme Court and is at the final stages. Therefore, special revision (SR) is being ordered in place of special intensive revision (SIR)," the official pointed out, explaining further the reasons behind holding SR instead of SIR.

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma welcomed the Election Commission's decision to undertake Special Revision of the electoral rolls in the state and assured the government's full cooperation.

"The Govt of Assam welcomes the Election Commission of India's decision to undertake a Special Revision of the electoral rolls with 01.01.2026 as the qualifying date," the chief minister posted on X.

"This will help ensure clean, updated and accurate electoral rolls for all eligible citizens. Assam will extend full cooperation to the @ECISVEEP to complete the revision in a transparent and time-bound manner," he added.

According to the schedule, the house-to-house verification will take place from November 22 to December 20.

The integrated draft electoral roll will be published on December 27 and the final roll on February 10 next year.

For field verification, the booth level officers (BLOs) will be given a pre-filled BLO register containing the details of existing electors in their respective part for a house-to-house field visit.

The household is the basic unit for conducting the house-to-house survey and to get the said details verified or corrected from the elector or the head of the household.

It said the details of D-Voters (doubtful voters) will not be included in the register, as no verification is required in their case.

D-Voters are a category of voters in Assam who are disenfranchised by the government on account of their alleged lack of proper citizenship credentials. D-Voters are determined by special tribunals under the Foreigners Act, 1946, and the person declared as a D-Voter is not given a voter card.

All related particulars, such as name, age and photograph, of the D-Voters will be carried forward to the draft electoral roll without any change.

Any modification, including removal or deletion, will be done "upon receipt of an order from the competent Foreigners' Tribunal or an appropriate court of law", it underlined.

Last month, the EC ordered SIR for Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Puducherry, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and Lakshadweep.

Among these, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Kerala and West Bengal will go to polls in 2026.

Elections in Assam are also due next year.

Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar recently said, "A special order will be issued by the Election Commission to hold SIR in Assam." "Under the Citizenship Act, there are separate provisions for citizenship in Assam. Under the supervision of the Supreme Court, the exercise of checking citizenship is about to be completed.

"The June 24 SIR order was for the entire country. Under such circumstances, this would not have applied to Assam," he said. PTI NAB NAB KSS KSS