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Election Commission
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday called Union Home Minister Amit Shah "dangerous", and warned that she would sit on a dharna if even a single eligible voter's name was struck off from the list during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. Launching a blistering attack on Shah, the chief minister said at a rally in Krishnanagar in Nadia district, "The country's home minister is dangerous. You can see it in his eyes it's terrifying. In one eye, you see 'Duryodhan', and in the other, 'Dushasan'." Alleging that the SIR was being used as a political weapon ahead of the 2026 assembly polls, Banerjee said, "If even a single eligible voter's name is struck off, I will sit on a dharna. There will be no detention camps in West Bengal. They are so hungry for votes that they are conducting the SIR just two months before elections." Banerjee said that she herself had not filled out her enumeration form so far. "Do I now need to prove my citizensh
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday alleged that the BJP is turning the Election Commission into a "tool" for "vote chori". Sharing a clip of his speech during a discussion on election reforms in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday, Gandhi said on X, "India's public is asking these 3 very important and direct questions: 1. Why was the CJI removed from the EC selection panel? 2. Why was almost complete legal immunity given to the EC before the 2024 elections? 3. Why the hurry to destroy CCTV footage within 45 days?" "The answer is one - BJP is turning the Election Commission into a tool for vote theft," the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha said. In a no-holds-barred attack, Gandhi on Tuesday alleged that the BJP and the Election Commission were "colluding to destroy" India's democracy and "rob people of their voice". Participating in the discussion on election reforms, Gandhi claimed the BJP is "directing and using" the Election Commission to damage India's democracy. Making suggestion
Congress MP Manish Tewari on Tuesday claimed that the Election Commission legally has no right to conduct the SIR and it must be stopped, as he asserted that many Opposition leaders as well as people now feel the need to raise questions over the poll body's neutrality. Initiating a discussion on Election Reforms in the Lok Sabha, Tewari said the first election reform should be to amend the law of 2023 on the selection of the chief election commissioner and election commissioners. He said the law stipulates that the panel be comprised of the prime minister, the leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha and a cabinet minister. "It is my suggestion that two members should be added to this panel -- the Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha and the Chief Justice of India. "If such a committee is formed then 'theek se khela hobega' and it will play an important role in removing the doubts over the Election Commission (EC)," Tewari said. The Congress leader said that BR Ambedkar ensured th
The Election Commission on Monday asked political parties to share copies of their latest constitution with updated amendments within 30 days, as it found many are yet to submit the crucial document to it. In a letter to party chiefs, the poll authority said the party constitution is an important document containing vital information regarding the objectives of the party and procedures it must follow for functioning in a democratic manner. It said each registered political party is also obliged to furnish to EC, any and all amendments carried out to their constitution. "It's requested that the copy of the latest party constitution, along with all its amendments up-to-date, should be furnished to the ECI, within 30 days, so as to upload the latest constitution on the website of the ECI," it said. Officials pointed out that some parties have not updated the EC with their latest constitutions for a very long time. "This is a reminder," the official said. The EC said that for overall
Rajasthan on Saturday completed 100 per cent digitisation of its electoral roll under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), becoming the first state in the country to do so, Chief Electoral Officer Navin Mahajan said. He said that coordinated effort and meticulous execution by BLOs, assistant staff, supervisors, district election officers and other staff engaged in the exercise were behind this success. "Rajasthan now also leads the country in voter mapping, with more than 97 per cent of the mapping work completed. As a result, only 3 per cent of voters will need to furnish documents during the claims-objections phase," he said. On average, he said, only about 30 voters per booth will be required to submit documents. He said high-quality mapping has made the SIR process simpler, more transparent and greatly reduced repeated verification for voters. Mahajan said that the dedication of field staff, especially BLOs and panchayat-level employees, was central to this achievement. He s
An estimated 7.62 crore enumeration forms have so far been digitised in West Bengal, over a month after the launch of the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the state ahead of the 2026 assembly polls. An Election Commission official said 99.43 per cent of the total number of distributed enumeration forms were digitised till Saturday afternoon. West Bengal now stands eighth among the 12 other states/Union Territories in terms of progress in digitisation of enumeration forms, after Lakshadeep, Rajasthan, Goa, Andaman and Nicobar, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Puducherry, he said. A total of 7,66,16,840 enumeration forms have been distributed since November 4, the beginning of the SIR process, till December 6, the official said.
The Election Commission on Sunday extended by one week the entire schedule of the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in nine states and three Union Territories. In a statement, the poll authority said the enumeration form distribution will now continue till December 11 instead of December 4. The draft electoral rolls will now be published on December 16 in place of December 9, while the final voters' list will be out on February 14, 2026 in place of February 7. The EC had announced SIR in these states and UTs on October 27.
The Election Commission wrote to West Bengal DGP Rajeev Kumar, directing him to ensure the security of Booth Level Officers (BLOs) during the SIR exercise after receiving reports that there is "an apparent threat" to their safety. This is EC's second letter to the state government in three days, expressing concern over the security of poll officials in West Bengal. On Wednesday, the EC wrote to Kolkata Police Commissioner Manoj Kumar Verma over a "serious security breach" at the CEO's office, following an agitation by a section of BLOs against "excessive work pressure". The EC wrote to the DGP on Friday as state BJP chief Samik Bhattacharya urged Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar to immediately visit the state and personally assess what he alleged was an "atmosphere of fear, coercion and intimidation" of BLOs by the ruling Trinamool Congress. "It has come to the notice of the Election Commission of India from various quarters that there is an apparent threat to the safety a
Amid the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in West Bengal, a 10-member Trinamool Congress delegation led by Rajya Sabha leader Derek O'Brien met the full bench of the Election Commission here on Friday. The delegation included TMC Lok Sabha MPs Satabdi Roy, Kalyan Banerjee, Pratima Mondal, Sajda Ahmed, and Mahua Moitra, and Rajya Sabha MPs Dola Sen, Mamata Thakur, Saket Gokhale, and Prakash Chik Barik. The meeting comes against the backdrop of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's letter to Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar, seeking his "immediate intervention" on two recent concerns. Banerjee referred to the state CEO's direction to district election officers not to engage contractual data-entry operators and Bangla Sahayata Kendra staff for the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), voters' list cleanup exercise, or other poll-related work, and a proposal to set up polling booths inside private residential complexes. It also follows the T
SP president Akhilesh Yadav has made a fresh attack on the Election Commission's Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, saying it was a "big conspiracy" against the people of the country that could push citizens into a state "worse than the colonial era." Posting a 20-second video on the SIR process on his official X handle on Thursday evening, Yadav appealed to all opposition parties, including allies of the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA), to "unite and expose this mega-conspiracy of the BJP." Attacking the roll revision exercise, he charged, "This is a fraud with democracy. People must stay alert. Today votes are being cut, tomorrow names will be removed from land records, ration cards, caste certificates, reservations, and later even from bank accounts and lockers of the middle-class." In a detailed post, the SP chief said, "This is a major conspiracy against the people of this country which will lead to a situation far worse than the colonial era. This i
Poll authorities in Bihar have not received any application from candidates who were defeated in the recently-held Assembly polls with a request for EVM burnt-memory or microcontroller verification, the Election Commission (EC) said on Thursday. It said no similar request was received for the eight Assembly bypolls held along with the second phase of polling in the Bihar election on November 11. Following directions from the Supreme Court, the EC had issued revised standard operating procedures on post-counting checking and the verification of burnt memory or microcontroller of electronic voting machines (EVMs) on June 17, under which candidates at serial number 2 or 3, behind the highest-polled candidates, could seek checking and verification of EVMs within seven days of the declaration of the poll results. The results of the Bihar election and Assembly bypolls were announced on November 14.
The Election Commission has reported that nearly 26 lakh voters' names in West Bengal's current electoral rolls are not matching with the voter list of 2002, an official said on Wednesday. The discrepancy emerged after the state's latest voter list was compared with the lists prepared across different states between 2002 and 2006 during the previous SIR exercise, he said. According to Election Commission sources, more than six crore enumeration forms in West Bengal had been digitised by Wednesday afternoon under the ongoing SIR process. "Once digitised, these forms are brought under the mapping procedure, where they are matched against the previous SIR records. Initial findings show that the names of around 26 lakh voters in West Bengal cannot yet be reconciled with the data from the last SIR cycle," the official told PTI. "Many voters or their families whose names appeared in those earlier lists may have subsequently migrated to West Bengal. Such voters remain Indian citizens, mak
Nearly 14 lakh SIR enumeration forms have so far been identified as "uncollectable" in West Bengal, the Election Commission said on Tuesday. These forms are "uncollectable" since the voters were either absentee, duplicate, dead or permanently shifted, an official said. The figure was 10.33 lakh on Monday. "As of Tuesday noon, the number stood at 13.92 lakh... We expect this figure to continue rising daily as more updates roll in," he said. Booth Level Officers (BLOs), tasked with collecting data from households across the state, have been actively engaged in distributing the forms and gathering necessary details. More than 80,600 BLOs, along with around 8,000 supervisors, 3,000 Assistant Electoral Registration Officers and 294 Electoral Registration Officers, have been engaged for the revision exercise in West Bengal, officials said. So far, three BLOs have died in the state amid the ongoing SIR.