The Election Commission has launched a state-wide campaign in Bengal to identify eligible voters whose names were deleted during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) and help restore them to the electoral rolls, prompting sharp criticism from the Trinamool Congress and Congress over the timing and conduct of the exercise.
The office of Bengal’s chief electoral officer said all 24 district election officers had begun the initiative in accordance with instructions from the Election Commission. Special camps are being held across the state, while people with complaints have been asked to contact their booth-level officers, assistant electoral registration officers, electoral registration officers or district election officers.
The CEO’s office said the campaign was intended to ensure that no eligible voter was excluded from the voter list. “We are committed to ensure that no eligible voter is excluded from the voter list,” it said in a press release.
The announcement followed allegations from the Trinamool Congress that the SIR process had been conducted in a rushed and unplanned manner before the assembly elections, resulting in the deletion of names of eligible citizens. The party questioned why the Election Commission had not undertaken a similar proactive exercise before the polls.
“Where was this proactiveness before the elections? Why was the SIR process in Bengal conducted in such a rushed and unplanned manner?” the Trinamool Congress said in a post on X. It alleged that the revision, carried out on the grounds of logical discrepancies, had deprived eligible citizens of their voting rights.
The party also demanded accountability for what it described as discrepancies in the revision process and questioned the integrity, fairness and impartiality of the exercise. It further alleged that the Election Commission had colluded with the BJP to help it win seats that it otherwise might not have secured. The allegations were made by the party and were not independently established in the report.
The Trinamool Congress also questioned the legitimacy of the government formed after the elections and said the Election Commission should address the alleged discrepancies and fix responsibility instead of expecting citizens to accept the process without question.
Congress general secretary in-charge of communications Jairam Ramesh separately criticised Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar while sharing a screenshot of the press release issued by the Bengal CEO’s office. Ramesh alleged that the assembly election had been delivered to the BJP through what he called a fraudulent process and accused the CEC of issuing the latest communication despite that alleged conduct.
The current campaign places district-level election officials at the centre of the response. Citizens who believe their names were wrongly removed can raise complaints through the designated electoral officials or attend the special camps being organised across Bengal. The CEO’s office has not, in the supplied statement, provided a figure for the number of names deleted or the number of eligible voters expected to be restored.
The immediate next step is the operation of the special camps and the processing of complaints by booth-level, electoral registration and district election officials across the state.
