Mumbai voter roll revision: BMC urges ECI to avoid May SIR drive
2 min readMumbaiMay 13, 2026 03:15 PM IST
Flagging the possibility of a large chunk of Mumbai’s voters being unavailable in May, Municipal Commissioner Ashwini Bhide has written to the Election Commission of India (ECI) urging it not to initiate the special intensive revision (SIR) for the city during the period.
Bhide’s move comes after political parties highlighted their concerns about voters being out of station during the two-month school vacation period from May.
The SIR, a process aimed at updating the electoral roll by removing duplicate entries, forged voters with dual identities, and deceased voters, began in the city last month. In Maharashtra, SIR was last carried out in 2002.
On April 24, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) urged citizens to cooperate with the authorities for the smooth execution of SIR.
“Many voters travel out of Mumbai during vacations. The process of SIR should include the entire electoral strength. Therefore, a request was made not to begin the drive from May, which is a typical period for summer vacation,” an officer in the BMC’s municipal commissioner’s office told The Indian Express.
In Mumbai, the SIR will be conducted in six stages — pre-revision period, enumeration, preparation of the AASD (Already Enrolled, Absent, Shifted, Dead) list, publication of draft rolls, claims and objections period, and publication of the final electoral roll. A separate stage, involving the counting of the current population, will be carried out in February 2027.
The officials said that at present, voter mapping work is underway in Mumbai city and suburban districts during the pre-revision phase. Details of voters listed in the 2002 electoral rolls are being matched with the 2024 rolls and mapped through the BLO application.
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In 2025, state Chief Electoral Officer S Chockalingam wrote to the ECI demanding adequate time to complete the drive, pointing out that 13 months were given for the process in 2002.
