SIR electoral roll revision commences in West Bengal amid political tussle; technical glitch halts process on first day

The Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls officially commenced across West Bengal on Tuesday, marking the launch of a politically sensitive undertaking ahead of the 2026 assembly elections. This process, the first of its kind in 23 years (the last being in 2002), involves over 80,000 booth-level officers (BLOs) visiting homes to distribute enumeration forms.

The month-long house-to-house revision is scheduled to run until 4 December and began on a largely peaceful footing, with BLOs delivering forms and explaining procedures to voters across the state.

However, the rollout was not entirely smooth, facing immediate snags. A technical glitch thwarted the digital distribution of forms on the very first day, when the Election Commission’s voter portal failed to launch due to backend issues. Furthermore, hundreds of school teachers assigned as BLOs faced difficulties balancing these electoral duties with their regular teaching commitments.

“It is due to a technical problem. We hope the service will be activated within a few days,” another official told PTI.

The exercise has quickly ignited political contention. The BJP has hailed the SIR as a necessary step towards greater transparency in the voter list. The ruling TMC, however, has questioned both the timing and the intent, alleging that the Election Commission is acting under pressure from the saffron party to manipulate the electoral register ahead of the state polls next year.

“Altogether, 80,681 BLOs have been deployed to conduct the exercise across the 294 assembly constituencies. Around 7.66 crore enumeration forms have been prepared, and each voter will receive two copies -- one to retain with a stamped acknowledgement and one for Election Commission records,” a senior EC official told news agency PTI.

“No untoward incident has been reported so far. We are hopeful that the process will proceed smoothly across the state,” the official added.

The West Bengal Teachers' Association has also weighed in, voicing concern that a large number of teachers were unable to participate in the initial form distribution as they were required to report to their schools. The association has called for teachers engaged in SIR duties to be granted "on-duty" status to avoid what it termed an “excessive burden”.

“Many teachers could not join the house-to-house process since they were on duty at school. Those whose schools are close to the distribution centres are somehow managing both,” said Golam Mustafa Sarkar, an office-bearer of the association.