EC deploys five special roll observers for Bengal SIR review

Kolkata: The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Monday deployed five special roll observers for Bengal to strengthen monitoring of the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the state.

The observers will supervise work across the five administrative divisions—Presidency, Midnapore, Burdwan, Malda and Jalpaiguri—amid concerns over data earlier submitted by district authorities.

The newly-appointed observers are Kumar Ravikant Singh, Niraj Kumar Bansod, Alok Tiwari, Pankaj Yadav and Krishnakumar Nirala.

The poll panel had already named Subrata Gupta as the state’s Special Observer. The five additional special roll observers will work alongside the 12 SIR observers currently monitoring the revision process in various districts.

As per the allocation, Kumar Ravikant Singh, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Defence (Works & Parliament Affairs), will oversee the Presidency Division. Niraj Kumar Bansod, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs, will handle the Midnapore Division. Krishnakumar Nirala, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, will monitor the Burdwan Division. Alok Tiwari, Joint Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, will oversee the Malda Division, while Pankaj Yadav, Joint Secretary, Department of Rural Development, has been assigned the Jalpaiguri Division.

According to ECI data, as of Saturday, the revision exercise has identified over 55.45 lakh electors whose names do not match the 2002 voter list, based on digitised enumeration forms submitted by booth-level officers (BLOs).

Among these unmatched electors, 23.83 lakh are recorded as dead, 10.50 lakh as untraceable, over 19.35 lakh have shifted from their registered addresses, and 1.28 lakh have been flagged as bogus.

The Commission has emphasised that the accuracy of these figures is of “top priority”, prompting the deployment of additional observers to verify division-level data.

The ECI’s stated objective is to ensure that the revision in Bengal—one of the largest in the country—is thorough and transparent, so that no legitimate voter is excluded from the rolls and no illegitimate entry remains on the list.