New Delhi, June 26 -- The Election Commission of India (ECI) said on Tuesday that it will undertake a special intensive revision (SIR) of the electoral roll in Bihar to weed out ineligible names, citing rapid urbanisation, frequent migration and foreign illegal immigrants as some of the motivations for the house-to-house verification exercise. Bihar is set to go to the polls later this year. This is the first time that ECI has spoken about illegal immigrants being part of the electoral roll in the state where the last SIR was done in 2003. The poll body also said that it will conduct a similar exercise nationwide. "One of the fundamental pre-conditions set out in Article 326 of the Constitution is that a person is required to be an Indian citizen, for [their] name to be registered in the electoral roll. Consequently, the commission has a constitutional obligation to ensure that only persons who are citizens [are enrolled in the electoral roll]... Therefore, the commission has now decided to begin the SIR in the entire country for the discharge of its constitutional mandate to protect the integrity of the electoral rolls," deputy election commissioner Sanjay Kumar said in a set of instructions issued to Bihar chief electoral officer. "Various reasons such as rapid urbanisation, frequent migration, young citizens becoming eligible to vote, non-reporting of deaths and inclusion of the names of foreign illegal immigrants have necessitated the conduct of an intensive revision so as to ensure integrity and preparation of error-free electoral rolls. The Booth Level Officers (BLOs) shall be conducting house-to-house surveys for verification during the process of this intensive revision," the poll watchdog said in a statement. The last time ECI did an intensive revision in seven states, including Bihar, in 2003. ECI said the decision was taken to ensure the integrity and preparation of an error-free electoral roll in Bihar, and in the rest of the country at a later stage. As part of its instructions, the Commission on Tuesday wrote to Bihar's Chief Electoral Officer, stating that July 1 would be the qualifying date for the SIR. "The objective of an intensified revision is to ensure that the names of all eligible citizens are included in the electoral roll (ER) so as to enable them to exercise their franchise, no ineligible voter is included in the electoral rolls and also to introduce complete transparency in the process of addition or deletion of electors in the electoral rolls," ECI said in the statement. ECI said that as Bihar elections are due later this year, the state will be the first to undergo the SIR. However, the schedule for the SIR in the rest of the country shall be issued separately in due course, ECI said in the set of instructions. "Since the last intensive revision in Bihar was undertaken in 2003, the electoral registration officers shall treat the electoral roll of 2003 with qualifying date of January 1, 2003, as probative evidence of eligibility, including presumption of citizenship unless they receive any other input otherwise. Any person whose name is not recorded in the 2003 electoral roll shall, for the purpose of registration in the electoral roll, be required to submit from amongst a wide range of eligible government documents as prescribed for establishing their eligibility to be an elector," Sanjay Kumar said. On top of the annual Special Summary Revision (SSR), published on January 6, 2025, and continuously updated since then, the deputy election commissioner directed that a "pre-filled enumeration form" shall be made available to every existing elector as on June 24 and the draft roll shall include the names of all the electors in Bihar who have submitted a duly filled enumeration form before July 25, 2025....