West Bengal Prepares Voter List Revision Amid Bihar SIR Citizenship Row

Kolkata: Preparations have formally begun for the revision of the electoral rolls in poll-bound West Bengal. The Election Commission (EC) has asked the state's Chief Secretary and all District Election Officers (DEOs) to step up preparations, including making necessary appointments, for the impending exercise.  

This development comes at a politically sensitive time, amid widespread opposition to a similar move in Bihar called the Special Intensive Revision (SIR). The EC has directed similar action in Bengal, even as several petitions questioning the SIR process in Bihar are under consideration in the Supreme Court, awaiting a verdict.

However, the Commission has not officially termed the Bengal exercise as “SIR.” Officials have clarified that revising the rolls before every election is a routine process. An EC official said, “We don’t know whether it would be called SIR (Special Intensive Revision) or not, but like in earlier polls, the roll revision will be done. So we are trying to complete our preparations in August so that, if required, we can start the revision process from September first week itself.”  

This follows a hint from the Chief Election Commissioner earlier this month, who, during a press briefing, stated, “The dates for the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in West Bengal will be announced after discussions. The announcement will be made soon.”

Bengal’s Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Manoj Agarwal has sent a letter on August 27 to all the state DEOs in this regard. He has sent a separate letter on August 26 to Chief Secretary Manoj Pant, asking that the government should fill up all vacant posts of Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) and Assistant EROs (AEROs) immediately so that that the EC could carry out the electoral roll revision when it is announced, sources said. Bengal is slated for the Assembly polls in March-April 2026.

The CEO’s letter included strict directives. It stated, “Therefore, it is hereby directed that, AEROs/EROs shall not delegate the discharge of any of their statutory duties and functions to any other official or person and will not share their ERONet login ID and OTP with any data entry operator or any other official or person under any circumstance whatsoever.” 

This specific directive came three weeks after the EC asked the Trinamool Congress (TMC)-led state government to suspend and book four officials, including two EROs and two AEROs, and a casual data operator for alleged fraudulent registration of 127 voters using forged documents. The CEO’s letter further stated, “Assistance for IT-related work will only be solicited from system managers, assistant system managers and data entry operators who are permanent government employees, drawing salary from the Home & HA Department… and in their absence/shortage from permanent government employees of the level of Group C and above.”

The letter also emphasized, “It is further instructed that field level enquiry by BLOs (Block Level Officers) cannot and should not be dispensed with by EROs/AEROs in the discharge of their statutory duties and functions. DEOs are hereby directed to ensure strict compliance of these directives by the EROs/AEROs in letter and spirit, and any deviation whatsoever will be viewed very seriously and may invite appropriate action as prescribed by the Representation of People's Act, 1950, and the applicable Conduct Rules.”

The letter underlined the EC’s powers by citing the law, “Whereas Section 31 (1) of the Representation of Peoples Act, 1950 states that ‘If any officer or other person entrusted to perform any official duty in connection with the preparation, revision or correction of an electoral roll or the inclusion or exclusion of any entry in or from that roll, is without reasonable cause, guilty of any act or omission in breach of such official duty, he shall be punishable, with imprisonment and with fine’.” It further added, “Whereas Section 13CC of the Representation of Peoples Act, 1950 states that ‘The officers referred to in this Part and any other officer or staff employed in connection with the preparation, revision and correction of the electoral rolls for, and the conduct of, all elections shall be deemed to be on deputation to the Election Commission for the period during which they are so employed and such officers and staff shall, during that period, be subject to the control, superintendence and discipline of the Election Commission.’…”

On August 29, CEO Agarwal also held a meeting with all parties over the proposed electoral revision exercise. 

‘Don’t Give Them Any Information’: Mamta Banerjee Accuses BJP of Using Sir to ‘Omit Voters From List’

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has launched a strong opposition to the process, urging citizens not to fill in the forms hastily without carefully verifying every detail, especially in light of the SIR-related requirements. At a rally, she accused the BJP of using the exercise to manipulate the voter list, stating: “The BJP has brought over 500 teams to Bengal from other states to conduct surveys for omitting the names of voters. Don’t give any information to unknown persons who come to your doorstep and ask anything. They may try to do NRC in the name of SIR. But as long as I live, I will not allow them to delete a single voter in Bengal.”

She also accused the Election Commission of India of partisanship, a sentiment echoed by other leaders of the opposition INDIA bloc regarding the similar process in Bihar. Mamata Banerjee concluded, “The BJP has brought over 500 teams to Bengal from other states to conduct surveys for omitting the names of voters. Don’t give any information to unknown persons who come to your doorstep and ask anything. They may try to do NRC in the name of SIR. But as long as I live, I will not allow them to delete a single voter in Bengal.”

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