2 months ago
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The Special Intensive Revision (SIR) successful West Bengal has yet ended barring a judicial adjudication of astir 60 lakh electors arsenic per the directions of the Supreme Court connected February 20, 2026.
The electorate of West Bengal stood astatine 7.04 crore connected February 28, 2026, reduced by 8.09% since the commencement of the revision process connected October 27, 2025, erstwhile the fig of voters successful the State was 7.66 crore. Names of immoderate much electors volition beryllium struck disconnected the electoral rolls aft the 501 judicial officers implicit the process of adjudication, but for the radical of West Bengal the process seems to beryllium yet over.
For astir 4 months, the medication of West Bengal was connected tenterhooks, trying to revise and update the electoral rolls. It took much than 5 lakh authorities officials including 80,681 BLOs (booth level officers) for each polling booth successful the State to implicit the process.
According to the Election Commission of India (ECI), the main nonsubjective of the SIR is to guarantee inclusion of eligible electors and exclusion of those ineligible.
An updated and revised electoral rotation forms the ground of elections successful a democracy. The process was agelong owed successful West Bengal. So, the intent of canvass assemblage successful updating and revising the elector database cannot beryllium criticised, but the committee floundered successful the mode the workout was carried retired implicit 4 months.
There was a unreserved to implicit the process earlier the announcement for Assembly polls successful West Bengal. This enactment not lone officials progressive successful the process nether immense accent but made the electorate of the State suffer. Millions of people, including the ailing elderly, were made to queue up astatine poorly organised SIR camps. There was small clarity connected the grounds connected which notices were being issued to voters to look astatine the camps and what documents were required to beryllium idiosyncratic arsenic a morganatic voter.
The Supreme Court intervened connected assorted occasions trying to streamline the process and adjacent pointed astatine a ‘trust deficit’ betwixt the State authorities and the canvass sheet earlier bringing successful judicial officers to implicit the past limb of the process.
The Trinamool Congress enactment not lone opposed the SIR but tried to vitiate the process. It was a governmental determination to rally the radical against SIR and thereby blasted the canvass assemblage and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) authorities astatine the Centre for imposing an arduous and poorly executed workout connected the people.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee made astir of the SIR, wrote half-a-dozen letters to Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and criticised the Commission and its officials successful strongest words. Ms. Banerjee held respective protestation marches successful the State, led a delegation of those who suffered owed to the SIR to the EC headquarters, appeared successful idiosyncratic earlier the Supreme Court, making rather a amusement earlier the State’s electorate.
The Trinamool Congress chairperson was capable to people governmental points months up of the Assembly polls riding connected the absorption of the SIR, adjacent though immoderate of her claims that implicit a 100 radical had died owed to SIR fears whitethorn not beryllium wholly true.
The West Bengal BJP leadership, which has been demanding SIR connected grounds of infiltration from the borderline with Bangladesh resulting successful demographic change, seems a small disappointed with the result of the exercise. Contrary to the claims of BJP leaders that implicit a crore of names volition beryllium deleted, the SIR workout has seen deletion of astir 62 lakh names truthful far.
The SIR has busted galore myths relating to the electorate and authorities of West Bengal. The highest class of deletions was successful the class of deceased voters, which accounted to 24 lakh names being struck off. The class of shifted elector accounted to 18 lakh removals and the deletions of absent voters who did not cod SIR enumeration forms was astir 12 lakh. The bulk of the names deleted nether absent and shifted were migrant workers successful West Bengal from different States. Such deletions were precocious successful constituencies successful an astir Kolkata, which has a precocious colonisation of migrants.
Matuas, a sect of Hindu refugees from Bangladesh, who person been migrating to the State for past respective decades person faced the vigor of SIR, since they lacked bequest information – names of forefathers successful the 2002 elector list. The minority-dominated districts of Malda and Murshidabad relationship for astir 20% of the cases which are nether judicial adjudication.
These indicators constituent retired that neither the assertion of the BJP that the elector database of the State is afloat of radical infiltrating from crossed the borderline nor the fearmongering by Trinamool that lakhs of genuine voters volition spot their names deleted from electoral rolls is true.
Now that the SIR workout is astir over, the canvass assemblage is apt to denote the dates of Assembly polls successful the State successful the adjacent fewer days. With a sanitised and updated elector list, the Assembly predetermination volition person a amended reflection of the mandate of the people.
