The Election Commission has extended the deadline for the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Maharashtra till August 8 after the state's Chief Electoral Officer sought additional time because of heavy rainfall.As part of the revised schedule, booth level officers have been given 10 extra days to complete the door-to-door verification of voters.Consequently, the publication of the draft electoral roll has been postponed from August 5 to August 17.

The period for filing claims and objections against exclusions will now run from August 17 to September 16, replacing the earlier deadline of September 4.The final electoral roll is scheduled to be published on October 19 instead of October 7.According to data released by the Election Commission, only 35.1% of enumeration forms had been digitised across Maharashtra as of Friday.

The digitisation rate was particularly low in Mumbai city, Mumbai suburbs and neighbouring Thane district, while Yavatmal and Ratnagiri recorded the highest progress.Maharashtra is among the 16 states currently undergoing the third phase of the Special Intensive Revision exercise.The Election Commission had also recently extended similar timelines in Delhi, Punjab, Karnataka and Telangana.

The revision process, which began in Bihar in 2025 before expanding to other states and Union Territories, has attracted criticism from several quarters over concerns that eligible voters could be wrongly excluded from electoral rolls, potentially influencing election outcomes.

In May, the Supreme Court upheld the legality of the revision exercise while clarifying that the Election Commission does not have the authority to determine whether an individual is an Indian citizen.