Uncorked: Election Commission officials cite drinking as factor in SIR hearing absences
Telegraph | 11 February 2026
“DRUNKER”; “Forgot (after) drinking wine”.
The bottle appears to be dearer than the ballot for some Bengal voters, reasons cited by Election Commission officials for SIR hearing absentees suggest.
Sources in multiple districts said several voters failed to appear at the hearing centres because they were either busy drinking or had forgotten about the summons after consuming alcohol.
District-level officials have prepared a list of absentees to ascertain the reasons behind these individuals skipping SIR hearings and determine whether those with valid explanations could be given a second chance.
In two booths in Hooghly’s Haripal, BLOs found that booze had kept two voters away from the hearing centre.
According to the absentee list prepared by the officials, one of them is a habitual drinker. His family members reportedly told the BLO that he often got drunk and wandered aimlessly, making it difficult for them to track him down and bring him to the hearing centre.
“DRUNKER” (sic), the BLO wrote as the reason for absence.
The other person told poll officials that he forgot about his scheduled hearing after binge drinking. “Forgot (after) drinking wine,” the BLO noted, taking the liberty to assume the individual’s alcohol preference.
“After considerable legwork, we finally managed to track down the duo from Haripal and complete their hearing process," said an election official in Hooghly.
“But we have no clue how many such voters skipped their hearings,” the election official said.
Officials in several other south Bengal districts, including East Burdwan and Birbhum, complained about the difficulty in locating several individuals who had been summoned for hearings.
A senior EC official said 3.5 lakh of 32 lakh “unmapped” voters did not attend the hearings, and their names were likely to be deleted from the final rolls. However, the number of voters who were on the “logical discrepancies” list but failed to appear for hearings is yet to be calculated, with the deadline being extended till February 14.
“Think about their mindset and addiction to alcohol. They are ready to sacrifice their voting rights for booze!” a senior official exclaimed.
“I assume that in the final list of deleted voters, there may be at least one in a hundred voters who did not bother to secure their inclusion for their preference for alcohol. However, it is almost impossible to obtain accurate data on this,” he added.
Poll officials said habitual drinkers were typically difficult to locate during the distribution of the enumeration forms.
“I had two such voters who could be traced after at least seven attempts. Fearing further legwork, I requested their family members to ensure the forms were filled properly and not misplaced,” said a BLO in Bolpur, Birbhum.
Swapan Mandal, general secretary of the Votekarmi and BLO Aikya Mancha, said his colleagues had encountered several alcohol-happy voters during the three-month-long drive.
“The number may not be huge, but many of our colleagues came across such individuals who were ready to forgo their voting rights for booze,” he said.
Psychiatric social worker Mohit Ranadip saw this as a phenomenon that could not be categorised as “typically rural or urban”.
“Those addicted to alcohol or ganja (cannabis) often live in a realm far away from reality. To them, addiction comes first. Undermining the importance of a serious issue such as the SIR is not unusual for them,” he said.