No official voter will probably be eliminated, all events will cooperate, says CEO West Bengal after all-party assembly

The Chief Electoral Officer of West Bengal Manoj Kumar Agarwal, on Tuesday (October 28) stated ‘no official voters’ will probably be faraway from the voters’ checklist throughout the Special Intensive Revision in West Bengal and that every one political events have agreed to cooperate via the method, following an all-party assembly at his workplace in Kolkata.

According to figures shared by the CEO’s workplace, the overall variety of electors in West Bengal as of October 28, 2025, stands at 7,66,37,529, with a mean of round 950 voters or 200 to 300 households per polling station. 

“No official voter will probably be eradicated… We have over 80,000 booth-level officers (BLO), over 8,000 BLO supervisors, over 3,000 assistant electoral registration officers, and 294 electoral registration officers. Apart from that, we have now the federal government equipment as needed beneath Article 326 of the Constitution… there will probably be assist desks in each district, together with particular assist desks in migration pockets,” Mr Agarwal stated.

He expressed confidence in with the ability to efficiently full the SIR course of in West Bengal in three months, like in Bihar, declaring {that a} key distinction between the Bihar SIR and the upcoming SIR in West Bengal is the provision of a machine-readable voters checklist of the reference 12 months (2002) as a beginning base for the train. 

“The enumerator will go from door-to-door at hand out enumeration types. We have undertaken sure tabletop workouts which didn’t occur when SIR started in Bihar. Our BLOs performed tabletop workouts evaluating the names current on the 2002 voters’ checklist with the names in at present’s voters’ checklist to know recurring voters, and to search out the hyperlink with their kids who weren’t on the checklist then,” Mr Agarwal added.

The CEO clarified that software program can be being utilized by the Election Commission of India (ECI) to detect matches between voter identification playing cards of 2002 and of at present, and that these matches will probably be put up within the BLO app throughout their dwelling visits. 

Responding to a query by The Hindu, Mr Agarwal additionally clarified that within the upcoming SIR, Aadhar has been added because the twelfth doc along with the checklist of 11 indicative paperwork for SIR, solely as identification proof however ‘not as proof of citizenship’.

“The Aadhar card is to be accepted and utilised as a proof of identification and never as a proof of citizenship, when it comes to part 9 of the Aadhar Act ,” he stated, studying out the Supreme Court order dated September 8 this 12 months.

Speaking on the all-party assembly performed on Tuesday, the CEO stated that he apprised the social gathering representatives in regards to the emuneration types, documentation, and the process. 

“We requested them to nominate booth-level brokers so far as sensible and attainable for them in every polling station in order that they may assist. It needs to be a consultative train which needs to be undertaken by all of us conjointly to arrange a free and truthful electoral roll,” Mr Agarwal.

He added that he’s not apprehensive in regards to the legislation and order state of affairs throughout the SIR course of in West Bengal, and the native police can be enough to make sure the protection of election officers.