The Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Gujarat has exposed that over 17 lakh deceased voters still remain on the state’s voter list, the Chief Electoral Officer’s office announced on Thursday. The ongoing drive, which began on November 4 and will continue until December 11, 2025, has also identified more than 6.14 lakh voters who no longer reside at their registered addresses and over 30 lakh individuals who have permanently shifted elsewhere.

Booth Level Officers (BLOs) have distributed enumeration forms to more than five crore registered voters across Gujarat’s 33 districts, achieving 100 per cent coverage in most areas. Digitisation of returned forms is progressing steadily, with complete processing already finished in 12 of the state’s 182 assembly constituencies, including segments in Banaskantha, Dahod, Rajkot, Junagadh, Kheda, Anand, and Navsari districts. Dang district leads with 94.35 per cent digitisation completed.

In addition to deceased entries, BLOs flagged over 3.25 lakh duplicate or “repeated” voter names appearing at multiple locations. Such discrepancies, if left unaddressed, can inflate voter numbers and raise the risk of electoral malpractice. The Election Commission of India conducts periodic intensive revisions to purge these inaccuracies and ensure only eligible citizens remain on the rolls.

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The scale of dead-voter entries—among the highest reported in recent years—has renewed focus on the challenges of maintaining an accurate electoral database in a state with over 5.2 crore voters. Similar large-scale deletions have occurred during previous summary revisions, but the current SIR is described as one of the most thorough clean-up efforts undertaken in Gujarat.

With the exercise set to conclude next week, the final purified electoral roll will be published in early 2026 and will serve as the basis for all forthcoming elections in the state. Officials have urged citizens to cooperate with BLOs and verify their details to prevent wrongful deletions.

The cleaned voter list is expected to enhance the integrity of Gujarat’s democratic process by eliminating ghost entries and ensuring accurate representation ahead of future assembly and local body polls.

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