Published: Nov 4, 2025
The Election Commission of India has officially launched the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in West Bengal on Tuesday, marking the beginning of a month-long process aimed at updating and verifying voter lists across the state. While SIR is a routine administrative exercise conducted periodically, in West Bengal it has rapidly escalated into a politically charged contest between the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ahead of the 2026 Assembly elections.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has announced that she will lead a major rally in Kolkata on Tuesday to protest what her party describes as a “politically motivated revision” of voter rolls, alleging that the exercise could be used to disenfranchise minorities and marginalized communities. Speaking through her party apparatus, the TMC has framed the SIR not merely as a bureaucratic exercise, but as a critical battleground in the coming electoral contest.
SIR: Administrative Exercise Meets Political Battlefield
The SIR is designed to ensure that electoral rolls are accurate, with house-to-house verification by Booth Level Officers (BLOs) from November 4 to December 4, followed by publication of draft rolls, the objection period, and finally the release of the updated voter lists in early February. While the BJP has welcomed the initiative as a necessary step toward improving transparency and accuracy in the voter lists, the TMC has questioned both the timing and intent, arguing that the Election Commission may be acting under pressure from the BJP to manipulate the electoral rolls ahead of next year’s elections.
Political analysts note that the SIR in West Bengal has quickly evolved into what is being described as “a battle between two forces: the administrative and the organizational.” The BJP, bolstered by the EC’s proactive stance and the potential deployment of central security forces, has positioned itself as the party committed to cleansing the state’s electoral rolls of duplicates and irregularities. Conversely, the TMC, drawing on its entrenched grassroots network, has mobilized to ensure that no legitimate voter is removed from the rolls.
Mamata Banerjee and TMC Mobilization
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s rally in Kolkata is intended as a visible demonstration of resistance to the SIR. Her party has characterized the voter revision as a potential tool for disenfranchising voters from minority and marginalized communities, asserting that political manipulation could undermine the integrity of the electoral process.
In tandem, Abhishek Banerjee, TMC national general secretary and Mamata Banerjee’s nephew, has instructed the party machinery to closely monitor the SIR process. His directives include “man-marking” of BLOs and the deployment of Booth Level Agents (BLAs) across all 84,000 booths to supervise the verification process. Party leadership has emphasized that agents should accompany BLOs at all times to prevent arbitrary deletions from the rolls.
Further, Abhishek Banerjee has instructed the establishment of war rooms in every assembly constituency, equipped with data teams and communications infrastructure to coordinate field operations. The next six months, he said, would constitute an “acid test” of the TMC’s organizational capabilities and its ability to protect its voter base ahead of the 2026 Assembly elections.
Despite these preparations, as of October 30, EC data indicates that the TMC has lagged behind rivals in appointing BLAs. The BJP had already deployed 294 BLA-1s and 7,912 BLA-2s, while the CPI(M) appointed 143 BLA-1s and 6,175 BLA-2s. The TMC, by contrast, had only appointed 36 BLA-1s and 2,349 BLA-2s, though insiders assert that this shortfall would be addressed before the SIR officially begins.
BJP Claims and Counterclaims
The BJP has aggressively accused the TMC of inflating West Bengal’s voter rolls with duplicate and fake entries. According to party leaders, administrative data from the 2024 Lok Sabha elections suggested the presence of over 40 lakh duplicate or fictitious names in the electoral rolls. The saffron party has projected that the SIR could remove at least one crore names, thereby cleansing the voter list and reducing manipulation.
BJP state president Samik Bhattacharya claimed, “Those who thrived on ghost voters and bogus ballots are panicking.” The party has framed the revision as a necessary step to ensure fair elections and to protect genuine voters from fraud and manipulation.
The TMC has responded forcefully. Barrackpore MP Partha Bhowmik warned that if even a single legitimate voter’s name is deleted, local BJP leaders would face severe consequences. Abhishek Banerjee has threatened to mobilize up to one lakh people to the Election Commission office in Delhi if the voter verification process results in arbitrary deletions.
The BJP, in turn, has accused the TMC of relying on “booth muscle” supported by a compliant police force to maintain its electoral dominance. Analysts note that this tit-for-tat rhetoric underscores the broader political struggle in West Bengal, where both parties are equally focused on controlling ground-level electoral mechanisms.
Training, Fieldwork, and Operational Challenges
The Election Commission has trained over 80,000 BLOs and issued 16-point operational guidelines, supplemented by a mobile app, to streamline SIR operations. Training for BLAs, who will shadow BLOs, concluded on November 3.
However, the exercise has not been without challenges. Teachers deputed as BLOs have protested against being marked absent in school registers during training sessions. Many have requested central security protection for both the training and fieldwork, citing threats and intimidation in politically sensitive areas. One teacher in North 24 Parganas remarked, “We are being sent to volatile areas without protection.”
The TMC has also claimed that four individuals have died by suicide, allegedly fearing the loss of their voting rights, while another was hospitalized after consuming poison. The BJP dismissed these reports as “manufactured melodrama,” reflecting the charged political atmosphere surrounding the SIR.
West Bengal’s Political Context
Observers view the current tensions as part of West Bengal’s enduring political pattern, where electoral battles are often fought at the grassroots level rather than in large public rallies alone. During the 2021 Assembly elections and the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP relied heavily on central forces, while the TMC leveraged its disciplined booth-level network. Both contests underscored the importance of meticulous voter list management and local political organization.
A Kolkata-based political scientist noted, “Bengal’s politics has always been fought at the booth level. The SIR will test not only the integrity of the voter list but also the resilience of these two armies, one administrative, one organizational.”
Timeline and Next Steps
The SIR exercise runs until December 4, after which the draft electoral rolls will be published on December 9. Citizens will have the opportunity to file objections to entries in the draft rolls until January 8, 2026. The final voter listis scheduled to be released on February 7, just two months before the anticipated 2026 Assembly elections, expected in April-May.
Political experts stress that in this exercise, the real battle is over who is included or excluded from the rolls, as every voter could potentially influence the outcome in close constituencies. For both parties, ensuring their supporters remain on the list and that their rivals do not gain an advantage has become a central focus, reflecting the heightened stakes of electoral management in the state.
Conclusion
As West Bengal shifts from large rallies to door-to-door political engagement, the SIR has emerged as a critical flashpoint. Beyond its administrative purpose, it has become a proxy battleground between the BJP and TMC, with both parties investing heavily in resources, personnel, and strategy to control the voter verification process.
In a state where electoral outcomes are increasingly influenced by booth-level mobilization and voter management, the SIR represents not just a routine revision of rolls, but a test of political strength, organizational capacity, and the ability to protect or challenge voter rights.
As the process unfolds, all eyes will be on Kolkata, the BLOs and BLAs, and the thousands of voters whose inclusion or exclusion could tip the balance in one of India’s most politically vibrant and contested states.
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