ECI Team in West Bengal to review progress of Special Intensive Revision

A three-member delegation from the Election Commission of India (ECI) arrived in Kolkata on Tuesday to review the ongoing first phase of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in West Bengal.

The visiting team comprises Deputy Election Commissioner Gyanesh Bharti, Deputy Secretary Abhinav Agarwal, and Principal Secretary S.B. Joshi. The officials will remain in the state until 8 November and are scheduled to assess the progress of the voter roll revision process in the northern districts of Jalpaiguri, Alipurduar, and Cooch Behar.

They will be accompanied by Manoj Kumar Agarwal, the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of West Bengal, along with a technical team.

According to officials, the CEO’s office has made arrangements to ensure booth-level officers (BLOs) are actively addressing voter queries and grievances. The state election department has activated the “Book a Call with BLO” mobile application to facilitate communication between voters and BLOs, with continuous monitoring by the CEO’s office.

“If a BLO fails to respond to a voter’s call or delays a callback, the matter will be reported to the respective district election officer, who will take prompt action to ensure the query is resolved,” a senior official said.

Under the first stage of the SIR, BLOs are visiting households across the state with enumeration forms to verify and update voter information. At the end of this phase, the draft electoral roll will be published.

In the second phase, political parties and individual voters will have the opportunity to file objections or suggest corrections to the draft list. These representations will be examined by the Election Commission before the final voters’ list is released in the third and final stage of the exercise.

The comprehensive revision process is expected to conclude by March 2026, marking the first Special Intensive Revision in West Bengal since 2002.