Story so far: Over 2.07 crore voter enumeration forms remain uncollected in Maharashtra under the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise, as per official data released on Monday (August 17, 2026). The deletion of such a large number of voters has triggered a new controversy in the State.

The Special Intensive Revision (SIR), undertaken the Election Commission of India (ECI), is a door-to-door exercise to verify and revise the electoral roll. The Booth Level Officers (BLOs) physically visit every household to verify the collected voter details. The BLOs are appointed by Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) of each Assembly constituency with approval of District Election Officers (DEOs).

After verification, the data is digitised. Duplicate, ineligible, and deceased entries are removed in the process, and eligible citizens who were not part of the electoral list in the State are also added.

What is status of ongoing SIR in Maharashtra?

Maharashtra has 9,78,54,049 (9.78 crores) electors, among which the State Election Commission (SEC) has digitised 7,69,52,262 (7.69 crores) or 78.64%, while deleting 2,07,93,916 (2.07 crores) or 21.25% of the State’s electorate as the Enumeration Forms (EFs) remain “uncollected”.

A similar exercise was conducted last in 2002. This time, the SIR in Maharashtra began in the third phase along with 21 States and UTs.

The enumeration phase started on June 30, with August 17 being the last date, extended from an earlier deadline. The dates were extended over heavy monsoon rains and disruption from the Ashadhi Wari pilgrimage. The State’s Chief Electoral Officer, S. Chockalingam, stated that 99.08% of enumeration forms had been distributed, though digitisation was lagging in dense urban districts like Mumbai, Nagpur, Pune, and Thane.

What does an Enumeration Form recorded as ‘uncollected’ mean?

The SEC in Maharashtra appointed 1,00,253 BLOs, who conducted the SIR exercise in 36 districts. The BLOs visited homes with Enumeration Forms (EFs), using a pre-filled form to verify the details of an existing voter and collected them for verification and digitisation. A form recorded as uncollected can be factored in for migration, dead, or that the BLOs could not connect with the persons.

The SEC bulletin on SIR uncollected EFs as on August 13 suggests that 33,94,053 voters are deceased, 63,61,113 voters untraceable, 71,95,388 voters permanently shifted, and 1,43,556 as others.

It is to be noted that August 17 is not the final deadline. The first draft of the electoral roll will be published on August 24 and citizens will be allowed to raise claims and objections between August 24 to September 23.

The final list will be published on October 27; before that, the claims, objections, and hearings will be disposed of by October 22.

Which areas have the lowest EFs collection so far?

Among the forms for 94.47 lakh voters, 45.4% of all uncollected forms were recorded in urban districts — Thane, Pune, Mumbai, and Mumbai Suburban. Thane had the highest share with 38.77% uncollected forms, Mumbai had 37.57%, Mumbai Suburban 34.48%, and Pune had 31.92%. This means that in Thane, nearly four in 10 voters remain uncollected.

Meanwhile, rural districts show the opposite pattern. In Hingoli, 8.82 % of voters form remain uncollected. For Buldhana, Ratnagiri, and Latur, only 9.10 %, 9.93%, and 10.62% remains uncollected, respectively.

Why is the Maharashtra SIR politically charged?

The SIR has been controversial in the State as the exercise comes after the 2024 Maharashtra Assembly polls and the recent municipal/local body elections, including the high-stakes Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) polls.

Opposition parties — Congress, Shiv Sena-UBT, NCP-SP, MNS, and others — have alleged large-scale irregularities in the existing rolls. The allegations include voters begin registered in multiple constituencies, dead persons remaining on rolls, and missing address data at specific booths. They have also questioned the decision of not including Maharashtra in the SIR exercise conducted earlier (as Bihar and other poll-bound States were), suggesting inconsistent sequencing by the ECI.

On the latest deletion of voters, NCP-SP Rohit Pawar raised objections, claiming that the BLOs are under so much pressure to complete the verification that they conducted surveys from the table —without door-to-door visits— with inputs from BJP workers. He cited that such things have happened in Pune, Nashik and Thane. He also alleged that the BJP developed software to categorise voters sharing their ideology.

Mr. Pawar also stated that he procured electoral roll data from all 288 Assembly constituencies and compared it with the preliminary list by the poll authority.

Published - August 18, 2026 11:08 am IST