Political circles in West Bengal are on edge over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, with the Supreme Court setting a firm February 28 cutoff for the final voter list. CEO Manoj Agarwal quelled rumors Thursday, vowing on-time delivery with innovative transparency tools.
The list will tag judicially contested entries as ‘Pending Judicial Decision’ and deletions as ‘Deleted,’ maintaining otherwise standard formatting. Agarwal pegged the revision’s scope at 60,06,675 voters, a figure central to the controversy.
Amping up scrutiny, Calcutta High Court summoned 200 judicial officers from Odisha and Jharkhand—split evenly—to join existing teams probing logical inconsistencies. This stemmed from a pivotal meeting led by CJ Sujoy Paul, featuring electoral chief Agarwal, CS Nandini Chakravarty, ADGP Piyush Pandey, CP Supratim Sarkar, and observer Subrata Gupta.
Launched by the Election Commission to sanitize rolls plagued by fakes, SIR has drawn over 80 lakh claims. Courts have fast-tracked it, approving outstation judges and mandating publication even if incomplete, via supplements. TMC supremo Mamata’s stay bid flopped; BJP calls it vital hygiene.
These developments signal a rigorous cleanup, poised to influence upcoming elections profoundly.