By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, May 14: Meghalaya will be covered under Phase-III of the nationwide Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, the Election Commission of India (ECI) announced on Thursday.
The schedule of the SIR Phase-III has been fixed keeping in view the common field machinery with the ongoing house listing of the Census.
According to the schedule released by the ECI, the revision exercise in Meghalaya will begin with preparatory activities and training from June 20 to June 29, while Booth Level Officers (BLOs) will conduct house-to-house verification from June 30 to July 29.
For Meghalaya, with its small but sensitive voter base of several lakhs, this exercise is particularly important. The state shares a long and porous border with Bangladesh, and concerns over illegal immigration, duplicate entries, and non-genuine voters have been raised repeatedly by tribal organisations and political parties for years.
The draft electoral roll for Meghalaya is scheduled to be published on August 5, following which claims and objections can be filed till September 4. The final electoral roll will be published on October 7.
The ECI has assured transparency and adherence to the guidelines in conducting the exercise. October 1, 2026, is the qualifying date for Meghalaya and the other states and Union Territories in the Phase-III schedule.
According to the data released by the ECI, Meghalaya has 23,43,252 electors, and 3,551 BLOs will be deployed across the state to conduct the revision process.
Nationwide, the Phase-III SIR will cover 16 states and 3 Union Territories, involving more than 36.73 crore electors. Over 3.94 lakh BLOs and 3.42 lakh Booth Level Agents (BLAs) will participate in the exercise.
The ECI described the SIR as a participative exercise involving electors, political parties, and election officials, and urged political parties to appoint BLAs at every polling station to ensure transparency and wider participation in the revision process.
The Commission also stated that the schedule for Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, and Ladakh will be announced later after completion of Census-related activities and considering weather conditions in the upper reaches and snow-bound regions.
