SIR in Bengal: EC faces challenges; TMC, Cong question poll panel at all-party meeting
Representatives of the non-BJP parties asked who had given the EC the authority to decide who is a ‘citizen’ and who is not, and alleged that the poll panel is unprepared for the exercise
The Election Commission (EC) is facing administrative, political, and social challenges in West Bengal as it embarks on the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the state's electoral rolls.
The SIR process, which commenced on Tuesday (October 28), involves a comprehensive review of voter data, including the verification of names against the 2002 Special Intensive Revision (SIR) list.
Verbal sparring at all-party meeting
A glimpse of the daunting nature of the challenges before the EC was evident during an all-party meeting convened by the state’s Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Manoj Agarwal, in his office on Tuesday evening.
The marathon meeting witnessed intense verbal sparring, with representatives from the Trinamool Congress (TMC), CPI(M), and Congress collectively questioning the EC’s intentions, sources said.
Also read: SIR 2.0 sparks nationwide row: Opposition cries foul, BJP calls it clean-up drive
Representatives of the non-BJP parties asked who had given the EC the authority to decide who is a ‘citizen’ and who is not, and alleged that the poll panel is unprepared for the exercise.
They questioned whether the EC had been tasked with verifying citizenship because the Union Home Ministry had failed to do its job.
In response, the EC reiterated that “no valid voter will be dropped”, a pledge that, in practice, may be difficult to guarantee, as the SIR exercise would require the verification of tens of lakhs of names.
Sujan Chakraborty of the CPI(M) questioned during the meeting why a voter who has participated in five elections since the 2002 SIR must once again prove eligibility merely because their name is missing from the 2002 list.
Over 7.6 crore voters to receive enumeration forms
A booth-wise comparison of the current electoral rolls with those from the 2002 SIR has revealed that only about 55 per cent of names match.
Also read: DMK-BJP face-off over SIR as Tamil Nadu braces for electoral roll drive
That leaves an estimated 3.3 to 3.5 crore voters – nearly half of the state’s about 7.61 crore electorates – whose names do not appear in the older list.
Each of these voters will now have to be verified either through linkage to parents or grandparents listed in the 2002 SIR, or by furnishing specific eligibility documents.
The scale of the exercise is huge, said an official involved with the exercise. Over 7.6 crore voters will receive enumeration forms from booth-level officers (BLOs), two per voter. One to be submitted and the other to be retained.
Final list on February 7
The timeline is tight. The draft rolls must be published by December 9, objections resolved by January 8, and the final list released on February 7.
That gives the EC roughly three months to verify crores of names.
TMC general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, at a press conference on Tuesday, pointed out that it took two years to complete the last SIR in 2002, while now the EC intends to finish the gigantic exercise within just about two months.
Official website crashes, restored later
The exercise is already showing strain. Shortly after the SIR schedule was announced, the state Chief Electoral Officer’s official website, ceowestbengal.nic.in, became inaccessible.
Also read: SIR of over 15 crore voters begins in UP, political storm likely
Visitors attempting to access the site were met with the message: “The Service is Unavailable.”
The SIR exercise, which aims to update voter information for nearly 7.62 crore voters ahead of the 2026 Assembly elections, has generated significant public interest.
The sudden surge in online traffic is believed to have overwhelmed the website’s servers, leading to the crash.
Despite these challenges, the poll panel reassured that there was no cause for alarm.
The CEO’s website was restored by 1 pm on Tuesday, and voters can now access the site to verify their details and participate in the revision process.
Reluctance of BLOs
Another administrative hurdle is the reluctance of many BLOs to take part in the exercise.
The CEO’s office issued show-cause notices to at least 600 government school teachers who, appointed as BLOs, refused to participate, citing overwork and unclear schedules.
Also read: Why rollout of SIR has made Gujarat's Muslims and tribals anxious
Compounding matters, the commission has initiated an investigation into the recruitment of more than 4,000 BLOs following complaints by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that the recruitment was politically motivated and violated ECI guidelines.
Furthermore, officials found that several BLOs assigned to voter mapping duties did not exist in the 2002 SIR database, sources added.
District authorities have been ordered to investigate and report such mismatches immediately.
Despite these hurdles, the EC maintains a firm stance. Invoking its powers under Article 324 of the Constitution, it has asserted that there will be “no hurdle” in implementing the SIR across Bengal, even amid political opposition.
TMC’s statewide ‘helpline’
The confrontational tone between the EC and the West Bengal government has been recalibrated, with the ruling TMC shifting from outright defiance to a more tactical posture.
The party has begun preparing a state-wide “helpline” and booth-level task teams to support voters with the SIR exercise.
The move signals that while the TMC continues to assert that it will oppose any deletion of valid names, it is simultaneously positioning itself as a facilitator of the process, assisting voters in filling forms, collecting documents, and safeguarding inclusion.
As one TMC leader explained: “The party will run this helpline service and monitor the entire process at district and state levels. Valid voters will definitely remain on the list.”
BJP calls for cleansing ‘bogus entries’
At the same time, the party leadership has issued internal directives to local units to refrain from controversial or inflammatory remarks about the SIR.
District presidents have been instructed to maintain silence on the SIR until the top leadership issues a final position.
On the other hand, the BJP has reiterated its demand for a digitalised SIR process and emphasised the need to cleanse the voter rolls of “bogus entries”.
Taking a dig at the EC, Abhishek said, “Earlier, people used to exercise their voting rights to decide who would form the government, and now the government wants to decide who will vote. Under the guise of the SIR, it (the Election Commission) is trying to remove the names of genuine voters.”
Matuas fear exclusion
Few communities feel this fear of exclusion as acutely as the Matuas, a Hindu refugee community that constitutes a sizeable voting bloc in districts bordering Bangladesh, such as North 24 Parganas and Nadia.
Even BJP leaders privately warn that the SIR process could disproportionately affect Matuas, many of whom lack older documents or inter-generational proof of residence.
In Habra, nearly a thousand Matua members marched against the SIR, accusing the EC of planning to “strike off refugee names” from the rolls.
The fear has deep roots in the political debate around citizenship and migration.
Person dies by suicide over 'fear of NRC scrutiny'
Deepening the issue, a man identified as Pradeep Kar from Khardaha allegedly took his own life, with family members claiming he feared National Register of Citizens (NRC) scrutiny.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday cited the case as “an indictment of the BJP’s politics of fear and division”.
“Pradeep Kumar died due to anxiety because of the ongoing NRC threat, and for this, Amit Shah (Union Home Minister) and Gyanesh Kumar (CEC) are responsible. An FIR should be filed against them,” Abhishek said, mounting socio-political pressure on the poll panel.
The BJP, however, termed the allegation baseless.
Meanwhile, the EC has issued a notice to former election strategist and founder-chief of the Jan Suraaj Party, Prashant Kishor, over allegations that his name appears on the voter lists of both Bihar and West Bengal.
The BJP delegation at the all-party meeting raised the issue, asking the poll panel whether registering one’s name in the electoral rolls of two states constitutes a criminal offence.
