Bengal SIR: Mamata to brief TMC booth workers as ECI moves to phase two

West Bengal chief minister and Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo Mamata Banerjee will address a mega meeting of the party’s booth-level agents (BLAs) in Kolkata on Monday, 22 December to chalk out its voter-list strategy for the next phase of the Election Commission of India’s (ECI) Special Intensive Revision (SIR), as electoral authorities prepare to begin issuing hearing notices from Thursday, 18 December.

The meeting at the Netaji Indoor Stadium comes days after the ECI published the draft electoral rolls for the state, revealing that 58,20,899 names had been deleted on grounds including death, permanent migration, duplication and non-submission of enumeration forms. The deletions have reduced the electorate from 7.66 crore to 7.08 crore ahead of the 2026 Assembly elections, triggering sharp political reactions, particularly in urban and high-profile constituencies.

TMC sources said the meeting is aimed at strengthening the role of booth-level party workers in claims and objections, ground-level verification and voter assistance during hearings. While the party has around 69,000 BLAs across the state, the proposed interaction will largely involve booth-level agents and local leaders from Kolkata and surrounding districts, along with those holding organisational responsibilities.

The decision follows a closed-door interaction earlier this week with BLAs and workers from Banerjee's own Bhabanipur Assembly segment, where nearly 45,000 voters were struck off the draft rolls, — 44,787 to be precise — comprising about 21.7 per cent of the electorate, which brought the number of electors down from 2,06,295 in January to 1,61,509 currently.

“The chief minister is expected to give clear directions on booth-level data verification, assistance to voters during the claims and objections process, and coordination with ECI officials,” a senior south Kolkata TMC leader said.

Party sources added that Banerjee is also likely to stress that voters should not face unnecessary harassment during hearings, and that booth workers must proactively help people with documentation, form-filling and follow-up.

The TMC has expressed strong dissatisfaction over large numbers of voters being marked 'dead', 'shifted' or 'absent', and has instructed its BLAs to carry out fresh, door-to-door verification of all deleted names. “The party leadership has made it clear that no valid voter’s name should be deleted under any circumstances. Every deleted name must be physically verified,” a party source said.

With the hearing process set to begin shortly, local units have been directed to stand by affected voters and continue neighbourhood-level ‘May I Help You’ camps to assist people during verification, including home visits if required.

Party leaders say the situation in Bhabanipur mirrors a wider trend across south Kolkata, where four politically significant Assembly segments — Bhabanipur, Kolkata Port, Ballygunge and Rashbehari — together recorded over 2.16 lakh deletions, nearly 24 per cent of their combined electorate of about 9.07 lakh at the start of the SIR exercise.

On the administrative side, Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) began issuing hearing notices this morning, marking the next phase of the SIR. According to an ECI official, notices are likely to be issued initially to around 32 lakh 'unmapped' voters — those whose details could not be linked with 2002 intensive revision data but whose names still appear in the draft electoral rolls for 2026.

“Being included in the draft electoral rolls does not necessarily mean that a voter will not be called for a hearing, though the process in their case may be comparatively simpler,” the official said. Two copies of each notice will be issued — one to the voter concerned and the other retained by the Booth Level Officer (BLO) after obtaining the voter’s signature. Voters will be given time after receiving the notice to appear for the hearing.

Hearings will be conducted at government offices, including those of district magistrates, sub-divisional magistrates and block development officers. Officials said screening of cases involving logical discrepancies is still underway, and the final number of voters who will be called for hearings is yet to be determined. Voters have been advised to keep ready the 11 documents specified by the ECI for verification.

Meanwhile, West Bengal’s special roll observer Subrata Gupta is expected to visit north Bengal ahead of Christmas to review the progress and implementation of the SIR in the region.

TMC leaders view Monday’s Netaji Indoor Stadium meeting as a key organisational move as voter list revision emerges as a major political flashpoint in the run-up to the Assembly elections.

With PTI inputs