In West Bengal, voter lists appearing online sparks speculation of electoral roll revision in state
This comes two weeks after the Election Commission of India wrote to state Chief Electoral Officers (CEOs) asking them to prepare for a Special Intensive Revision similar to one currently ongoing in Bihar.
According to sources in the election commission, the list that has been published on the website of the of the State's Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) contains the names of 11 districts — Coochbehar, Jalpaiguri, Darjeeling, Uttar Dinajpur, Dakshin Dinajpur and Malda in North Bengal and Nadia, Howrah, Hooghly, Medinipur and Bankura in the south.
So far, there's been no word from the Election Commission on the speculations in West Bengal, with a senior official saying only that they were 'ready for anything'.
'Within two-three days we will publish all 23 districts' lists of electors according to 2002 SIR,' the official at the West Bengal CEO said.
Significantly, West Bengal is due to hold assembly polls next year. In its order to Chief Electoral Officers, the ECI asked them to rationalise polling stations (including identification of new buildings to ensure no polling station has more than 1,200 electors); fill up all vacant positions of key officials, from Block Level Officers (BLOs) and Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) to Assistant Electoral Registration Officers (AEROs), and supervisors who will undertake the enumeration on the ground; and conducting their training.
Also mentioned in the order was the direction to publish the 2002 electoral rolls online.
As part of the exercise, the West Bengal Chief Election Officer began training its Booth Level Officers for the enumeration exercise Saturday.
But Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has opposed the exercise, saying Monday that her party 'won't allow SIR in West Bengal'. She also accused the Election Commission of acting on directions from the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance at the Centre.
'They (EC) are finalising the voters' list, while sitting in Gujarat… The BJP's agency (EC) is doing this… They have already set up detention camps in Haryana and Assam… We want to say: 'Jo humse takrayega, choor choor ho jaayega' (Those who mess with us will be shattered),' she said.
However, Leader of Opposition and BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari has supported the move. 'No Rohingya or Bangladeshi Muslim illegal immigrant, however, will be allowed to have their names in the electoral rolls in the state,' Adhikari said.
The electoral roll revision exercise in Bihar has been at the centre of a row, with Opposition parties claiming that the requirement that voters enrolled after 2003 produce multiple documents to stay on the rolls could potentially disenfranchise millions of voters and has spurred legal challenges in the SC.
Unlike the Bihar exercise, the qualifying date for pan-Indian exercise has been kept as January 1, 2026.
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