West Bengal CEO receives barrage of complaints from political parties over a week into SIR
The Hindu | 14 November 2025
The office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of West Bengal has received a barrage of complaints from both the ruling Trinamool Congress and the Opposition, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), since the beginning of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the State’s voters’ lists earlier this month.
On Wednesday (November 12, 2025), Leader of Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly and BJP MLA Suvendu Adhikari visited the CEO’s office and said a delegation of the saffron party submitted a pen drive and printed copies of ‘evidence’ of around 13.25 lakh ‘fake, duplicate and dead voters’ across five Assembly constituencies.
“The CEO accepted it and instructed officials to probe our complaints in all 294 Assembly constituencies. For instance, we flagged 11,896 dead voters in the Falta constituency,” Mr. Adhikari said.
He added that the BJP also raised concerns regarding 5,700 booth-level officers (BLOs), alleging violations of ECI’s rules for BLO appointments, especially in alleged instances of BLOs having political affiliations. According to the LOP, the CEO’s office received reports for around 70% of the cases, but are yet to assess the accuracy of the reports.
“We have filed 65 complaints from the BJP’s SIR control room. In some cases, the BLO did not go door-to-door but was distributing enumeration forms from the party office or the Councillor’s office. In some cases, the BLO did not communicate with BJP’s booth-level agent (BLA),” Mr. Adhikari said.
Meanwhile, according to sources in the Trinamool, the ruling dispensation has filed roughly 47 complaints since the beginning of the SIR process till November 12, mostly concerning the functioning of BLOs during the enumeration phase. These include complaints surrounding the flawed execution of duties, improper distribution of forms, among others.
The enumeration phase of the SIR in West Bengal began on November 4 and is slated to conclude by December 4. During this phase, BLOs are expected to make door-to-door visits to hand out, and subsequently, collect filled up enumeration forms from electors, and upload the collected data on the BLO mobile application.
Apart from this, Trinamool leaders have also made public accusations against the Election Commission of India, accusing it of ‘favouring’ the BJP by modifying rules of the appointment of party-affiliated BLAs and raising alarms over the likely deletion of over 30 lakh dead voters in West Bengal based on Aadhar data.
Meanwhile, a delegation of the Election Commission of India, including the Senior Deputy Election Commissioner Gyanesh Bharti, is likely to visit Kolkata early next week to monitor the progress of the ongoing SIR and attend an upcoming special meeting on Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs), according to sources in the office of the State’s Chief Electoral Officer.
The special meeting on EVMs is scheduled to be held in Kolkata on November 21 and will be attended by CEO Manoj Kumar Agarwal, the district magistrates, and high-ranking officials from the ECI like Mr. Bharti, sources further said. The district magistrates are expected to undergo final training and discussions on EVMs for the upcoming 2026 West Bengal Legislative Assembly elections.
Additionally, the ECI delegation will monitor the progress of SIR in Kolkata and South Bengal for two days and submit a report to the Commission.
Earlier this month, Mr. Bharti and Mr. Agarwal had conducted review meetings along with district-level officials in Alipurduar and Cooch Behar districts in North Bengal on the ongoing SIR.