If Your Family Has NRIs, Their Vote May Not Survive Punjab's SIR. Here's Why

NRI voters Punjab SIR data shows Doaba districts worst-hit by “Permanently Shifted” exclusions. Here’s what families must do before the September 12 deadline.

North Desk Correspondent

Chandigarh, August 4

If you have relatives settled abroad whose names are still on the electoral roll back home, Punjab’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) 2026 may have already flagged them, and the window to fix it closes September 12.

NRI Voters Punjab SIR: Why NRI-linked voters are disproportionately affected

NRI Voters Punjab SIR: The Chief Electoral Officer Anindita Mitra’s own district-wise data, released Tuesday, shows a clear pattern: the worst-performing districts for Enumeration Form collection are concentrated in Doaba, Punjab’s core NRI-emigration belt.

Jalandhar collected only 88.79% of forms (11.21% uncollectable — 1.85 lakh electors), Kapurthala managed just 87.21% (12.79% uncollectable), and Hoshiarpur and SBS Nagar — both heavy-NRI districts — also trail the state average of 90.37%. Compare that to rural, low-emigration Mansa at 96.31% or Malerkotla at 94.23%, and the gap is hard to miss.

The mechanism is simple. A Booth Level Officer visits a house up to three times over roughly six weeks to collect a filled Enumeration Form. If the registered elector is abroad — working, studying, or settled with family overseas — and no one at the house is able to complete or return the form on their behalf, the BLO has little choice but to mark that elector “Permanently Shifted.”

READ ALSO: SIR Punjab Explainer: What Is the Special Intensive Revision of Voter Rolls

20 lakh total voters excluded

NRI Voters Punjab SIR: Statewide, this is the single largest category among the 20.66 lakh voters excluded from the draft roll — 9.44 lakh people, 4.40% of Punjab’s entire electorate, reclassified this way. An NRI who still considers Punjab home, still holds an Indian passport, and still intends to vote when in the country, can be swept into the same category as someone who has genuinely relocated for good.

What happens next if nothing is done

Punjab’s draft electoral roll publishes August 13. If a family member’s name has been marked absent, shifted, dead, or duplicate, it simply will not appear on that draft list. The only recourse is the Claims and Objections window — August 13 to September 12 — during which anyone left out can file Form 6, either online or physically, to get their name restored. After September 12, the window closes; disposal of claims runs through October 8, and Punjab’s final electoral roll is locked in on October 12. There is no indication in the CEO’s release of a separate provision for NRI electors who are physically unable to be present during this window — the burden of filing falls on family members back home.

What NRI families should actually do

Anyone with relatives abroad still listed as Punjab voters should treat the next five weeks as the actual deadline, not the SIR enumeration phase that just closed.

A family member in Punjab should check the draft roll when it publishes on August 13, confirm the NRI relative’s name is present, and if it isn’t, file Form 6 before September 12 — either online through the Election Commission’s portal or physically at the local ERO office.

Waiting for a notice is not a safe strategy: the CEO’s office has said unmapped electors will receive notices starting the same day the draft roll publishes, but there is no guarantee every flagged elector will be individually notified before the objection window shuts.

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ALSO: SIR 2026: 66,000 Chandigarh Voters Risk Deletion as Punjab, Haryana Extend Deadlines

READ ALSO: SIR Punjab Explainer: What Is the Special Intensive Revision of Voter Rolls

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