Overview
- About 5.3 lakh booth level officers began house-to-house distribution of pre-filled enumeration forms on November 4 across nine states and three UTs, covering roughly 510 million electors, with draft rolls due December 9 and final rolls on February 7, 2026.
- Current entries are being mapped to the 2002/03 SIR rolls for automatic verification, with no documents collected at enumeration; electors not linked will receive notices after draft publication and must furnish one of 11 documents, with Aadhaar accepted only as identity proof.
- West Bengal emerged as the political focal point as Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee led a large Kolkata rally opposing the drive, while BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari held a ‘Parivartan Yatra’ backing full implementation and calling for deletion of alleged infiltrators.
- Operational updates included 1.6–1.8 million forms distributed on day one in West Bengal, an Election Commission team set to review rollout in border districts, and parallel launches reported in Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh and other participating states.
- Legal and social contention intensified as Congress MP Manish Tewari argued the ECI lacks a mandate for a nationwide SIR, the DMK approached the Supreme Court, and local reports in Bengal cited suicides that families linked to fear over the process.