DC Edit I Bengal SIR: EC Is PlayingAround With Right to Vote
The first phase of the election covers 152 Assembly constituencies. The gazette notification for this phase will be issued on March 30, 2026.
The special intensive revision (SIR) of the electoral roll, the machine the Election Commission has invented to run over bona fide voters under one pretext or the other, is creating mayhem in West Bengal, putting the very legitimacy of the election to the state Assembly scheduled for April to test.
The latest bad news is that the EC has published a supplementary list of voters after examining the claims of close to 32 lakh people that rejects 12.8 lakh candidates.
The data is critically important. The EC published the electoral roll after the first phase of SIR on February 28 excluding about 63.6 lakh voters who were originally on it. Another 62 lakh had been marked “under adjudication”. The EC had assured that none of those on the “under adjudication” list would actually be dropped from the list provided they could prove their legitimacy as voters. The Supreme Court which intervened in the matter also assured them that the EC will come up with supplementary lists, which will enable them to vote. However, the fact is that the EC has been able to screen a little over 50 per cent of the names on this list in 24 days; the remaining 30 lakh are still waiting to be called to prove their credentials. Worse, those who remain excluded have been given no venue to go and appeal even if the Supreme Court had ordered for such an arrangement. The apex court had allowed the West Bengal chief electoral officer to requisition the services of former judges of the high court to head the panel which will hear the appeals.
The first phase of the election covers 152 Assembly constituencies. The gazette notification for this phase will be issued on March 30, 2026.
The last dates for the submission of nomination for the two phases of elections in the state are April 6 and April 9, respectively. Given that a candidate ought to be a member of the electorate in the state to contest the elections to the Assembly of that state, and the EC is in no position to complete the SIR process before then, this will deny all those whose cases have not been decided the chance to contest the elections. Worse, it will effectively strip many of their right to vote if it does not complete the process at least a few days before April 23.
The EC kicking off the election process with an incomplete roll of electors is gross violation of the Constitution, the law and the fundamentals of electoral democracy. If the EC is till wedded to the idea of free and fair elections, it should freeze the SIR process now and hold the elections with the electoral roll which was in force before the creaky SIR process started. The right to vote in a democracy cannot be fooled with by institutions that have no respect for democratic principles.
