Chief Electoral Officer Manoj Kumar Agarwal. File | Photo credit: PTI
Calcutta
Almost half of the cases that were adjudicated after the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in West Bengal have now been resolved, Chief Electoral Officer Manoj Kumar Agarwal said on Monday (Mar 23, 2026).
However, the director general did not specify how many of these cases were included or excluded from the final voter list.
Before releasing the list, Mr. Agarwal said the entire process was centralized and state officials had no additional information.
“At least 29 million cases have been disposed of till today (March 23 evening). That’s what we can see on our dashboard. We have no information on how many were included or how many were left out,” the CEO said. About 31,000 cases are still ongoing.
Political interest
The development provoked sharp reactions from political parties. Trinamool Congress spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said, “No legal and genuine voter should be left out. If the Election Commission anticipates that the additional voter list will cause law and order problems in the state, then they already know that people will be removed from the list without proper reason.”
Mr. Ghosh further added that after the announcement of election plans, the jury has shifted several top police and administrative officials across the state and now, in case of any unforeseen situation, the European Commission will be responsible.
“In the name of SIR, what is happening in Bengal can cause a huge amount of voter disenfranchisement,” said Congress veteran Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury.
Appeal mechanism
The Chief Secretary of West Bengal has asked the Chief Secretary to provide a space where the appellate courts can do their work and listen to the people’s appeals.
People who are excluded from the final electoral roll even after the hearing can appeal to a tribunal headed by former judges. Judges will hear their cases and decide whether or not they can be listed.
Under trial
After months of the SIR process, the final electoral roll of West Bengal was released on 28 February, containing 6.46 million names, while 60 lakh names were held under a court order. The cases remained unsolved for 23 days even as political parties traded barbs.
Around 700 judges from West Bengal, Jharkhand and Odisha heard the cases in the last 3 weeks.
Of the 1.6 million people who were invited to the hearing, 1.3 million were in the “logical contradiction” category and 32 million were classified as “unmapped” voters.
Earlier, when the draft voter list was published, 58,000 people were removed in categories such as deceased, absent, permanently shifted and duplicates. After the final list was published, approximately 5.5 million more were deleted.
West Bengal will go to polls in two phases on April 23 and 29. The census will be held on May 4.
Published – 23 March 2026 23:03 IST
