Kolkata lags behind state average as form distribution enters last lap
Times of India | 12 November 2025
Kolkata: The
distributed more than 85.7% of enumeration forms across Bengal by Tuesday afternoon, but two key electoral districts that make up Kolkata — Kolkata North and Kolkata South — lag way behind the state average.
In Kolkata North, only 66% of electors have received the forms so far while in Kolkata South, 74% have been covered. East Burdwan is the best performing district, with 97% of the electors receiving their forms. Around 5.7 lakh enumeration forms were submitted online across the state. Till 8 pm on Tuesday, 6.6 crore out of 7.6 crore electors in Bengal had received their forms.
The data from the office of the chief electoral officer in Bengal corroborated a TOI report published Tuesday that many electors in Kolkata remained anxious as they had not yet received their enumeration forms.
When asked why form distribution was so low in Kolkata, an ECI official said: "There could be many reasons. During BLOs visit, absence of electors at their addresses might be one of them. Many electors' names may be registered in more than one place. Many electors also submitted the form online. But we have asked the BLOs to expedite the distribution process as we will have to complete the exercise by Dec 4."
Bengal CEO Manoj Agarwal instructed the BLOs to collect the filled forms from electors simultaneously.
Many BLOs have started collecting filled forms, but most plan to do so once they complete the distribution in a day or two.
Enakshi Rakshit, a BLO working in the Maniktala area, said: "There was huge pressure on us to complete form distribution by today, which I managed to do. The next part of our work, which is to collect forms, is even more difficult as we have to tally what has been written in the forms with documents like the 2002 voter list.
So I have started the collection process as well."
Suman Ghosh, a supervisor in the Sovabazar area, said: "As time is very short to complete the entire process, the first week was fixed for distribution. In my area, the form distribution process is almost complete, and the next part, which is form collection, has already started."
Subho Bhattacharya, a supervisor in the Jorabagan area, added: "All the BLOs have been alerted to complete distribution by today as the seven-day deadline ended on Tuesday. As far as I know, distribution in my area has been completed, and the collection will start on Wednesday, as this is going to be the most challenging task to handle."