Anxiety, long queues as 32 lakh unmapped voters attend SIR hearings across West Bengal
KOLKATA: Hearings under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls continued for the second consecutive day across West Bengal on Sunday, with long queues witnessed at 3,234 centres statewide. According to a senior official, around 32 lakh unmapped voters, those unable to establish linkage with the 2002 electoral roll, have been called for hearings in the first phase of the revision process. At the Sankrail block office in Howrah district, 75-year-old polio-afflicted voter Sabita Manna waited in an ambulance for her turn, worried over discrepancies in her electoral details. Her nephew Tapas Manna said she could not locate her name in the 2002 roll and had been asked to be physically present despite her disability. Earlier, polling officials and political representatives visited her at home. This time, they have made her personal appearance mandatory, he said. Sabita said from inside the ambulance, It hurts when, at this age, you have to prove your citizenship all over again. Similar anxiety was evident in Barasats Kazipara area, where voter Nirufa Khatoon said she was unable to prove her father had voted in the 2002 polls as both her parents had passed away. I was born in North 24 Parganas and shifted here after marriage. I have all documents, but I am on the edge, she said. Her husband added that she had carried her school leaving certificate, birth certificate, Aadhaar, ration card and existing voter ID to the hearing. In Midnapore town, residents of Hatath colony said only two out of ten voters per household found their names in the draft rolls. One woman, who admitted being born in Bangladesh but said she had migrated to India in the late 1980s and voted regularly since then, expressed hope that her documents would be accepted. In Bardhaman, a 26-year-old woman could not attend the hearing as she was accompanying her three-year-old daughter undergoing treatment at Tata Memorial Hospital in Mumbai. Her father-in-law said he carried all relevant documents, including medical records, to the camp. Meanwhile, at the Chetla High School camp in south Kolkata, Mayor and local MLA Firhad Hakim said voters who were unmapped due to technical glitches despite submitting all documents need not attend hearings for now. I have been told by CEO personnel that the onus lies with the Election Commission to fix the glitches and properly link names with the 2002 electoral roll, Hakim said. The Election Commission had published the draft electoral rolls on December 16 after the SIR exercise, deleting over 58 lakh names on grounds such as death, migration and non-submission of enumeration forms. Centre provides CISF security to Bengal CEO Amid the ongoing exercise, the Centre has provided a Y-plus category armed security cover to West Bengal CEO Manoj Agarwal, following inputs from central agencies about potential threats. Officials said the Ministry of Home Affairs issued the order on December 26, deploying 1112 armed CISF personnel from its VIP security wing for Agarwals personal and residential security in Kolkata. The security move comes amid heightened political tensions, with the ruling Trinamool Congress accusing the Election Commission of deleting names of lakhs of legitimate voters to benefit the BJP ahead of the 2026 Assembly elections. A TMC delegation had also submitted a memorandum to Agarwal on Saturday protesting the SIR exercise. (With inputs from PTI)
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