Post SIR, voter base in Gujarat, Lakshdweep, Puducherry shrinks by nearly 69 lakhs

The electorate in Gujarat, Lakshadweep and Puducherry shrunk by nearly 69 lakh after the completion of the special intensive revision of voters’ list, data shared by the Election Commission on Friday (February 20, 2026) shows.

Gujarat, Lakshadweep and Puducherry recently published their respective final electoral rolls as part of the poll roll cleanup exercise.

Before SIR was announced on October 27 last year, the combined electorate of Gujarat and the two Union Territories stood at 5.19 crore. After publication of final rolls, their total voter base came down to 4.50 crore — a net change of 68.9 lakh.

In Gujarat, while the electorate before the SIR stood at 5.08 crore, it shrunk to 4.40 crore — a net change of 68.12 lakh. In percentage terms, a net change of 13.40 per cent.

In Lakshadweep. before the poll roll cleanup exercise, the voter base stood at 57,813. But after the publication of the final electoral rolls, it went down to 57,607 — a net change of 206 electors. In percentage terms, a net change of 0.36%.

In poll-bound Puducherry, the total number of electors before SIR commenced was over 10.21 lakh. It shrunk to 9.44 lakh when the final rolls were published — a net change of 7.57% in percentage terms.

While the exercise, which kept the EC in the news, was completed in Bihar, it is ongoing in 12 states and Union territories with nearly 60 crore electors.

The remaining 40 crore electors will be covered in these 17 States and five Union territories.

In Assam, a ‘special revision’, instead of SIR, was completed on February 10.

Due to a variety of reasons, SIR in the nine States and three Union Territories have seen frequent tweaking in schedules.

Like Bihar, political parties have approached the Supreme Court challenging SIR in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal.