Deep Revision of Voter Lists in Punjab

August 7, 2026

-Abhishek Vij

A special, intensive revision of voter lists is currently underway in Punjab ahead of the assembly elections. In the first phase, voter data was collected door-to-door. First, we want to express our appreciation for the staff conducting the SIR, which many voters share personally. The SIR team consists of BLOs and survey officers. All of them are performing additional duties, meaning they are assigned duties from teachers to other government office employees. Their work is demanding, ensuring no margin for error. In the first phase that has just been completed in Punjab, the staff has performed their duties with utmost sincerity. Speaking of the shortcomings in the previously revealed facts, the first is that 2,066,635 voters were not found during the survey. The reason is that most of these voters have died, and many have permanently left the state. Despite this, their names remained on the voter lists. Furthermore, many voters had double-voted, meaning they had registered in more than one place. Surveys based on these criteria have been conducted in every state, and door-to-door surveys have also been conducted in Punjab. State governments or the central government are often accused of deliberately deleting the names of voters suspected of being their supporters. In West Bengal, the allegation was clearly made that Trinamool Congress supporters’ votes were cut, which is why Mamata Banerjee’s party lost the election. Well, let’s talk about Punjab. The first phase of this campaign, led by Punjab’s Chief Electoral Officer, Anandita Mitra, ran from June 25th to August 3rd. In this phase, 2,14,61,043 registered voters were verified in all 23 districts and 117 assembly constituencies of the state. The progress of the verification work is such that 1,93,94,408 voters have submitted their voter count forms, but 20,66,000 forms have not been received. This represents 9.63 percent of the total votes. This means that slightly more than 90 percent of the voter list has been completed. Now, the details of the remaining voters are that 4.12 lakh voters could not be traced, that is, their whereabouts could not be found. The mapping of 12 lakh voters has not been done yet. The reason is that the previous mapping was done in 2003. Therefore, only 93.40 percent of the total voters have been mapped. The remaining work has now fallen to the new machinery. There are over 1.2 million voters who have neither been mapped nor verified. Chief Electoral Officer Anandita Mitra has clarified that if any of these unmapped voters come forward and wish to vote, they can submit a notice to verify their identity as a citizen of Punjab. In such a situation, voters should be prepared to submit their documents by August 13th. You may recall that a similar issue arose in West Bengal, where the bench ruled that if a voter believes their vote was wrongly cancelled, they can appeal to the bench. If they have the correct documents, their right to vote will be restored. There, complaints were received that the time was so short that only a small number of applicants could vote. The draft voter list will be released on August 13th, and all claims and objections to this list will be taken until September 12th. The final voter list will be published on October 12th. We hope that a correct voter list will be released for a fair and impartial election