People wait for document verification amid a hearing in a special intensive revision of electoral rolls at a center in Balurghat, West Bengal on Saturday, February 7, 2026. | Photo credit: PTI
The Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of West Bengal on Saturday (February 7, 2026) asked the Election Commission of India (ECI) for a one-week extension to complete the Special Intensive Review (SIR) of electoral rolls as around 5% of hearings remain pending after the original deadline of Saturday (February 2, 2026).
In a recommendation sent to the ECI on Saturday (February 7, 2026), CEO Manoj Kumar Agarwal sought more time to complete hearings, upload documents, process submissions of Forms 6, 7 and 8 and digitize all records. The proposed revised deadline for the completion of the documents is February 14. The final lists were to be released earlier on February 14. If the extension is approved, officials said the release of the final documents could be pushed back to Feb. 21.
According to officials in the CEO’s office, hearings are pending in about 11 of the state’s 294 assembly constituencies.
“About 95-97% of the hearing has been completed and more than 75% of the digitization process is done. We have sought a seven-day extension from the ECI, which may further push the publication of the final electoral rolls by a few days,” Mr. Agarwal said.
He added that he had received several requests from the District Electoral Officers (DEOs) for extension of time, after which the recommendation was forwarded to the ECI. As of Saturday evening, the Commission had not received any formal confirmation of the date extension.
Sources in the CEO’s office said the ongoing hearings include one constituency in North Kolkata, seven in South Kolkata, one in Darjeeling, one in Howrah and several others. Voters who do not attend a scheduled hearing after the extended deadline risk being removed from the final 2026 voter list.
After the first draft of the voter list was published in December, some 58 million voters were deleted in categories such as death, change of permanent residence or untraceability. In addition, more than 1.36 million voters have been flagged in the “logical mismatch” category and have been issued notices to appear for hearings.
However, an updated list published in early January showed that the number of voters with logical discrepancies had dropped to 94.49 million. About 31.68 lakh voters were classified as ‘unmapped’ category – those who were unable to establish any link with the 2002 electoral roll either through self-mapping or progeny mapping.
Meanwhile, according to an official notification issued on Friday (February 6, 2026), the ECI has clarified that proof of domicile or permanent residence issued by the West Bengal authorities will be accepted as a valid proof of identity at the SIR hearing. However, such certificates will be valid only if issued by the District Magistrate, Additional District Magistrate, Sub-Divisional Officer or Collector (Kolkata).
Published – 07 Feb 2026 22:01 IST
