The Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls ahead of the 2027 Punjab Vidhan Sabha elections would be a challenging task for the district administration, as Ludhiana remains the state’s most populous and largest district.
With the Election Commission of India (ECI) setting an October 1, 2026 deadline for completion, the entire machinery has been on its toes to ensure timely execution of the exercise.
Talking to The Tribune, Deputy Commissioner Himanshu Jain said the SIR demands great attention. Unlike routine updates of electoral rolls, the exercise involves door-to-door enumeration of every household by Booth Level Officers (BLOs), verification of existing entries, and fresh enrolment of eligible citizens.
“Another concern is the gender gap on the rolls. The district’s electoral gender ratio stands at 893 females per 1000 males, against a Census-projected ratio of 939. This 46-point gap suggests that women voters remain undercounted, a challenge that the SIR’s house-to-house enumeration is specifically designed to address. Apart from that, the Elector-to-Population (EP) ratio at 675 also indicates significant headroom for new enrolments, particularly among the district’s 18-29 age group, which numbers nearly 5.35 lakh voters”, informed Jain.
Special protocol for Persons with disabilities:
The district has 16,887 registered PwD (Persons with Disability) electors, and 4,253 service electors, both these categories demand separate protocols for enrolment and access.
The government machinery on toes:
Running the SIR across 14 constituencies, many officials have been put on SIR duties. At the apex sits the District Election Officer, supported by an Additional DEO. Each of the 14 Assembly Constituencies has an Electoral Registration Officer (ERO), drawn from the PCS cadre: SDMs for rural constituencies, and Joint Commissioners of the Municipal Corporation and senior GLADA officers for the urban areas.
Each ERO is backed by two Assistant EROs (AEROs), and in an important notification By the ECI, five Additional AEROs have been designated per constituency, bringing 70 additional officers into the SIR machinery.
For the district’s support infrastructure, 12 dedicated nodal officers have been appointed, covering everything from grievance redressal and IT troubleshooting to media monitoring, BLO welfare, and legal matters. The inclusion of a dedicated BLO Welfare Team, will ensure to address field-level grievances of the thousands of BLOs conducting door-to-door visits.
The schedule:
The real exercise begins from June 25 when BLOs will reach out across every ward and village in the district for a month-long house-to-house enumeration drive running till July 24.
“Rationalisation of polling stations must be completed by the same date. The draft electoral roll will be published on August 3, opening a 30-day window for claims and objections. The notice phase for hearing and verification runs till September 28 with the final roll published on October 1, 2026, which is the qualifying date,” said Jain.
One of the BLOs said that the next 2 months are going to be very crucial. “Since it would be a tedious and challenging task, we will try to meet the deadlines too. We have also put our all personal plans on hold as the SIR would be an important exercise all over”, said the BLO.
