India Extends Voter Roll Revision in Six States, With Delhi Final List Due December 22

India's Election Commission on Thursday revised the schedule for the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls in six states and union territories, giving voters and political parties more time to file claims and objections before the final rolls are published. The final electoral rolls for Nagaland, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Haryana and Maharashtra will be published on November 30. Delhi will publish its final roll on December 22, more than three weeks after the other five.

The extensions followed formal requests submitted by the chief electoral officers of the respective states, and the Commission issued separate communications to the five states and to Delhi. The communications were issued from Nirvachan Sadan, the Commission headquarters in New Delhi, on October 29. They change three sets of dates in each place: the deadline for filing claims and objections, the notice phase during which claims are disposed of, and the date of final publication of the updated rolls.

Delhi and Maharashtra get the longest changes

Delhi received the longest extension of the six. The period for filing claims and objections, which was due to close on October 30, will now run until November 25. The notice phase and the disposal of claims, earlier scheduled to finish on November 30, will now continue until December 15. The final roll for the capital will be published on December 22.

In Maharashtra, the deadline for filing claims and objections has been extended from October 26 to November 13. The notice phase and disposal of claims will run until November 25, and the final roll will be published on November 30. Maharashtra published its draft roll on August 31, and disposal of claims had earlier been scheduled to conclude on November 10.

The other four states

For Nagaland, the notice phase and disposal of claims and objections will run until November 25. In Telangana, the same phase will run until November 26. Andhra Pradesh and Haryana have been given identical dates, with the notice phase and disposal of claims and objections continuing until November 20. In all four states, as in Maharashtra, the final rolls will be published on November 30.

The Commission directed chief electoral officers to inform all concerned officials of the revised timelines and to give the changed schedule wide publicity through all available media. Political parties are also to be informed of the changes in writing, and copies of the letters have been sent to the respective chief secretaries.

A revision exercise in its third phase

Delhi and Maharashtra are among the states covered in Phase 3 of the Special Intensive Revision, which was launched on May 14. The exercise seeks to update and verify electoral rolls through extensive field verification, and its schedule has been revised multiple times in the past. There have been several timeline revisions in recent weeks for administrative and logistical reasons, with the Commission adjusting state schedules to keep the revision process running smoothly. When Phase 3 is complete, the exercise will have been carried out across the whole country except Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.

The Commission conducts the revision to make sure the electoral rolls are accurate and up to date. The longer windows are expected to give eligible citizens more opportunity to file claims for inclusion, and to allow objections to be examined in full before the final rolls appear.