The Election Commission on Thursday directed the Chief Electoral Officers (CEOs) of 22 states and Union Territories, including Punjab, Haryana, HP and Chandigarh, to start preparations for the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls “at the earliest”.While the SIR has been completed in Bihar, the exercise is almost over in nine states and three UTs. The work is now set to begin in the remaining 17 states and five UTs.The CEOs of the 22 states and UTs have been asked to “complete preparatory work” related to SIR “at the earliest”.The SIR in the states and UTs will coincide with the first phase of Census-2027, under which the house-listing work is to be conducted in the first phase between April and September.In a letter to the CEOs of Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli & Daman and Diu, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Ladakh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Delhi, Odisha, Punjab, Sikkim, Tripura, Telangana and Uttarakhand, the poll body said the pan-India SIR of voters’ list was ordered in June last year.The letter recalled that the EC had, on June 24 last year, ordered that SIR would be undertaken across the country and directed all CEOs, except Bihar, where the exercise started in June 2025 itself, to initiate pre-revision activities for the exercise.After the Bihar exercise concluded, the EC had announced SIR in 12 states and UTs — Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Puducherry, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Lakshadweep, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.