Kolkata: The Election Commission of India (ECI) will launch a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls across West Bengal from November 1.
Ahead of the exercise, a two-day training session for booth-level officers will be held in all districts on Monday and Tuesday. The ECI has issued detailed instructions for the revision process. As part of the exercise, volunteers will be deployed to assist voters in filling up the enumeration forms once the SIR begins.
Permanent government employees and school teachers may be engaged as volunteers to support booth-level officers. District administrations have been directed to prepare lists of such volunteers.
All District Election Officers (DEOs) have received the necessary guidelines for implementing the SIR. The Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Bengal has also communicated with District Magistrates, asking them to take all preparatory measures. Each DEO and Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) has been instructed to set up help desks in their offices to handle SIR-related queries.
The DEOs have also been advised to convene a multi-party meeting the day after the formal announcement of the SIR to ensure transparency and coordination.
According to the ECI, the upcoming revision will include verification of around 3.5 crore voters who were not part of the state’s 2002 SIR list. The electoral rolls published after 2002 and those updated in January 2025 have shown a 52 per cent match, while Bengal’s total voter base currently stands
at 7.6 crore.