Bengal Voter List Overhaul Enters Final Stage as EC Publishes Post SIR Rolls in Phases

The Election Commission has begun publishing West Bengal’s post Special Intensive Revision (SIR) electoral rolls in phases, marking a decisive step ahead of the 2026 Assembly elections . The post corrected voter list is being released just months before the polls, making it a crucial development for the next government, the state’s political parties and lakhs of voters whose eligibility has been under scrutiny.

Hard copies of the updated lists have already been displayed in several districts, including Bankura, while the online publication on official portals and the mobile app is being rolled out gradually. Physical copies are also available at district and sub divisional offices and polling booths.

The revised rolls account for 7.08 crore electors who featured in the draft list. Each name has now been categorised as approved, deleted or under adjudication. The last category refers to cases currently being examined by judicial officers, with final decisions to be reflected in supplementary lists to be issued in phases.

The scale of the revision has been significant. The draft rolls released on December 16 showed the electorate shrinking from 7.66 crore to 7.08 crore , with more than 58 lakh names deleted due to death, migration, duplication or untraceability. In districts such as Kolkata, voter deletion has been a politically sensitive issue in recent years, adding to the intensity of the debate around the SIR exercise.

The second phase involved hearings for 1.67 crore electors , including 1.36 crore flagged for logical discrepancies and 31 lakh lacking proper mapping. Even now, nearly 60 lakh voters remain under adjudication .

The SIR, the first statewide revision since 2002, was conceived as a statutory clean up of the rolls ahead of a major election. Its stated aim was to remove ineligible entries and ensure a more accurate voter database. However, with large scale deletions and ongoing scrutiny, the final publication carries significant political weight as West Bengal moves closer to the 2026 polls.