Bengal SIR: Hearings for 15 lakh voters to be completed in three days

With just three days left before the 7 February deadline, hearings for around 15 lakh voters in West Bengal will need to be completed to stay on schedule under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls.

The hearings pertain to claims and objections raised on the draft voters’ list. The final electoral roll is scheduled to be published on 14 February.

Election Commission officials say they are confident of meeting the deadline, citing the current pace of hearings across the state. At present, around 6,500 hearing centres are operational, conducting sessions daily.

“Each hearing centre will need to handle roughly 76 cases a day over the next three days for the process to be completed. This is well within manageable limits and not a herculean task,” an official from the office of the chief electoral officer (CEO), West Bengal, said.

Completion of the hearings before 7 February would also place the Election Commission in a position ahead of the next hearing on the SIR exercise before a three-judge Bench of the Supreme Court on 9 February. Chief minister Mamata Banerjee is also expected to present her arguments before the Bench, as she did earlier this week.

The SIR hearings in West Bengal began on 27 December 2025. While the initial phase saw slower progress, the process gathered momentum after the deployment of additional officials and the expansion of hearing centres across the state.

Following the publication of the final voters’ list, a full Bench of the Election Commission of India is expected to visit West Bengal to review the situation. Soon thereafter, the commission is likely to announce dates for the state’s Assembly elections.

Sources said the CEO’s office has suggested limiting the election process to a maximum of two phases, compared to the seven or eight phases conducted in recent polls. The Assembly elections are expected to conclude by the end of April, with the formation of the new state Cabinet likely in the first week of May.

With IANS inputs