The Election Commission has asked chief electoral officers of 17 states and 5 Union Territories to prepare for the third phase of the SIR, expected to begin in April.

This will cover those parts of India that have neither had an SIR nor an Assam-like special revision in the past year.

Election Commission secretary Pawan Diwan said in the letter: "The commission, vide order no. 23/ERS/2025 dated 24.06.2025, has ordered Special Intensive Revision of electoral roll to be undertaken in all states and UTs. In continuation to this, the Commission, vide letter no. 23/2025-ERS (Vol.ll) dated 05.07.2025, directed all the CEOs (except Bihar) to initiate pre-revision activities for the SIR. Further, the commission vide letter dated 27.10.2025 announced SIR exercise in 12 state/UTs, which is underway. Since the SIR in the above states/UTs is expected to start from April 2026, you are requested to complete preparatory work related to SIR at the earliest."

The second phase of SIR, which was supposed to end on February 7, has gone off schedule due to multiple delays.