Kolkata: Even as Mamata Banerjee publicly carries on a high-decibel campaign against the implementation of SIR (Special Intensive Revision) of voter rolls, the West Bengal government has quietly thrown in the towel in its stand-off with the Election Commission.
This follows the summoning of Chief Secretary Manoj Pant to New Delhi to explain personally why the state government was not heeding the EC’s directive to take action against officials who had committed irregularities to include names of fake voters. Later, the state government suspended the erring officials, but did not file FIRs against them, flouting EC directives.
Now, setting the stage for revision of electoral rolls in poll-bound West Bengal, the Election Commission (EC) has asked the Chief Secretary and the District Election Officers (DEOs) in the state to step up preparations, including making necessary appointments, for the impending exercise.
West Bengal’s Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Manoj Agarwal, sent a letter to Chief Secretary Manoj Pant, asking that the government should fill up all vacant posts of Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) and Assistant EROs (AEROs) immediately so that the EC could carry out the electoral roll revision whenever it is announced, sources said. Bengal is slated for the Assembly polls in March-April 2026.
Following the letter, the West Bengal administration has issued instructions for the “immediate appointment” of more than 600 vacant ERO and AERO posts ahead of voter list revision. The pending appointments of booth-level officers (BLOs) have also been directed to be completed within the timeframe.
According to sources at Nabanna, the state administrative headquarters, Agarwal, apart from writing to the Chief Secretary, also sent a letter on August 27 to District Election Officers (DEOs) and District Magistrates (DMs).
“The objective of these letters is to be ready for commencement of the SIR exercise in Bengal whenever ECI announces it and that’s why the Chief Secretary ordered to appoint all EROs and AEROs in a meeting with all DMs on Wednesday,” sources revealed.
Sources said DMs were told that ERO posts held by officers of Deputy Magistrate rank should be changed. Generally, SDOs (sub-divisional officers) should be appointed as EROs, but if none are available, senior WBCS officers can take the role.
As the move to implement SIR in West Bengal gathered pace, Chief Electoral Officer Agarwal held a meeting on Friday with all parties over the proposed electoral revision exercise.
An EC official told The Sunday Guardian: “We don’t know whether it would be called SIR (Special Intensive Revision) or not, but like in earlier polls, the roll revision will be done. So, we are trying to complete our preparations so that, if required, we can start the revision process from September first week itself.”
Sources in the state government said that the EC’s strict and no-nonsense attitude was clear from the CEO’s letters to the Chief Secretary and to all District Magistrates (DMs), who are the DEOs as well.
In the letter to the DEOs, the CEO said: “Therefore, it is hereby directed that AEROs/EROs shall not delegate the discharge of any of their statutory duties and functions to any other official or person and will not share their ERO Net login ID and OTP with any data entry operator or any other official or person under any circumstance whatsoever.”
This directive came three weeks after the EC asked the Mamata Banerjee government to suspend and book four officials, including two EROs, two AEROs, and a casual data operator for alleged fraudulent registration of 127 voters using forged documents in the Baruipur Purba and Moyna Assembly constituencies.
In an apparent reference to the state’s “fake voters” row, the CEO’s letter to the DEOs said: “Assistance for IT-related work will only be solicited from system managers, assistant system managers and data entry operators who are permanent government employees, drawing salary from the Home & HA Department… and in their absence/shortage from permanent government employees of the level of Group C and above.”
The letter also stated: “It is further instructed that field level enquiry by BLOs (Block Level Officers) cannot and should not be dispensed with by EROs/AEROs in the discharge of their statutory duties and functions. DEOs are hereby directed to ensure strict compliance of these directives by the EROs/AEROs in letter and spirit and any deviation whatsoever will be viewed very seriously and may invite appropriate action as prescribed by the Representation of Peoples Act, 1950 and the applicable Conduct Rules.”
Agarwal’s letter underlined the EC’s powers, saying: “Whereas Section 31(1) of the Representation of Peoples Act, 1950 states that ‘If any officer or other person entrusted to perform any official duty in connection with the preparation, revision or correction of an electoral roll or the inclusion or exclusion of any entry in or from that roll, is without reasonable cause, guilty of any act or omission in breach of such official duty, he shall be punishable, with imprisonment and with fine’.”
It then added: “Whereas Section 13CC of the Representation of Peoples Act, 1950 states that ‘The officers referred to in this Part and any other officer or staff employed in connection with the preparation, revision and correction of the electoral rolls for, and the conduct of, all elections shall be deemed to be on deputation to the Election Commission for the period during which they are so employed and such officers and staff shall, during that period, be subject to the control, superintendence and discipline of the Election Commission.’…”
