Hello,
The Election Commission of India (ECI) has informed West Bengal state officials that voters in the state would soon be ordered to undergo the controversial Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral roll. They will have to provide evidence of their voting rights and citizenship afresh.
The revision was first ordered for the state of Bihar. We investigated and found that the revision is unprecedented. It does not comply with the existing regulations and manuals of the Election Commission of India. In Bihar, the ECI junked a recently concluded review of the voter roll to order the SIR. The same is now going to happen in West Bengal.
The revision requires verifying voters from scratch. In Bihar, the ECI has mandated different levels of scrutiny of documents for different classes of voters — a first in Indian electoral political history. It has ordered the exercise to be completed in a short period of three months. Alongside, it has emphasised that the citizenship of people should be verified through the process, and it has limited the documents people can produce to prove their citizenship and right to vote.
In West Bengal, too, the exercise is likely to be undertaken over a short period of time. Assembly elections in the state are due before May 2026. State officials confirmed to us that they have been ordered to start preparing for the review.
Read the report by Ayushi Kar and Nitin Sethi here.
Our first investigation into the controversial Bihar electoral roll review gives a deeper background and understanding of ECI’s decision. You can read it here.
Warm regards,
Mayank Aggarwal
Trustee and Editor