Bengal SIR: ECI to give list of excludable voters to BLAs for better transparency

Kolkata: With the deadline for the submission and digitisation of the enumeration forms in the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in West Bengal coming to end at 12 midnight on Thursday, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has decided to handover the separate lists of excludable voters to the booth-level agents (BLAs) of all the political parties in the state that are registered with the it.

Sources in the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), West Bengal, said the list will also contain the detailed breakup of the excludable voters, like deceased voters, shifted voters, untraceable voters, duplicate voters, and voters deemed to be found excludable for other reasons.

This decision of the ECI to hand over the separate list to the BLAs of different political parties is aimed at bringing transparency in the process of hearing on claims and objections that will happen in the second stage of the three-level SIR exercise after the publication of the draft voters’ list on December 16, the CEO’s office insider said.

“With the separate list being handed over to the BLAs immediately after the submission and digitisation of the enumeration forms being completed on Thursday midnight, the individual political parties and their BLAs will have enough time for doing the homework for the process of hearings on claims and objections,” the insider added.

As of Wednesday night, a total of 57,52,207 voters have been identified by the ECI as excludable voters. Out of them, 24,14,750 are deceased voters, followed by 19,89,914 shifted voters and 11,57,889 untraceable voters.

The rest are duplicate voters and voters deemed to be found excludable for other reasons.

The total number of voters as per the list as of October 27, 2025, is 7,66,37,529. The SIR exercise started on November 4. The draft voters’ list will be published on December 16. The final voters’ list will be published on February 14.

Soon after that, the ECI is expected to announce polling dates for the Assembly elections in the state.

IANS