Setting the stage for revision of electoral rolls in poll-bound West Bengal, the Election Commission (EC) has asked the Chief Secretary and the District Election Officers (DEOs) in the state to step up preparations, including making necessary appointments, for the impending exercise.
Bengal’s Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Manoj Agarwal has sent a letter on August 27 to all the state DEOs in this regard. He has sent a separate letter on August 26 to Chief Secretary Manoj Pant, asking that the government should fill up all vacant posts of Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) and Assistant EROs (AEROs) immediately so that that the EC could carry out the electoral roll revision when it is announced, sources said. Bengal is slated for the Assembly polls in March-April 2026.
On August 29, CEO Agarwal is also going to hold a meeting with all parties over the proposed electoral revision exercise. An EC official said, “We don’t know whether it would be called SIR (Special Intensive Revision) or not, but like in earlier polls the roll revision will be done. So we are trying to complete our preparations in August so that, if required, we can start the revision process from September first week itself.”
In his letter to all District Magistrates (DMs), who are the DEOs as well, the CEO said: “Therefore, it is hereby directed that, AEROs/EROs shall not delegate the discharge of any of their statutory duties and functions to any other official or person and will not share their ERONet login ID and OTP with any data entry operator or any other official or person under any circumstance whatsoever.”
This directive came three weeks after the EC asked the Trinamool Congress (TMC)-led state government to suspend and book four officials, including two EROs and two AEROs, and a casual data operator for alleged fraudulent registration of 127 voters using forged documents in the Baruipur Purba and Moyna Assembly constituencies. Following a showdown with the poll body, on August 21, the last day of the EC-stipulated deadline, the state government suspended these officials, but did not register an FIR against them.
In an apparent reference to the state’s “fake voters” row, the CEO’s letter to the DEOs said: “Assistance for IT related work will only be solicited from system managers, assistant system managers and data entry operators who are permanent government employees, drawing salary from the Home & HA Department… and in their absence/shortage from permanent government employees of the level of Group C and above.”
The letter also stated, “It is further instructed that field level enquiry by BLOs (Block Level Officers) cannot and should not be dispensed with by EROs/AEROs in the discharge of their statutory duties and functions. DEOs are hereby directed to ensure strict compliance of these directives by the EROs/AEROs in letter and spirit and any deviation whatsoever will be viewed very seriously and may invite appropriate action as prescribed by the Representation of Peoples Act, 1950 and the applicable Conduct Rules.”
Agarwal’s letter underlined the EC’s powers, saying: “Whereas Section 31 (1) of the Representation of Peoples Act, 1950 states that ‘If any officer or other person entrusted to perform any official duty in connection with the preparation, revision or correction of an electoral roll or the inclusion or exclusion of any entry in or from that roll, is without reasonable cause, guilty of any act or omission in breach of such official duty, he shall be punishable, with imprisonment and with fine’.”
It then added: “Whereas Section 13CC of the Representation of Peoples Act, 1950 states that ‘The officers referred to in this Part and any other officer or staff employed in connection with the preparation, revision and correction of the electoral rolls for, and the conduct of, all elections shall be deemed to be on deputation to the Election Commission for the period during which they are so employed and such officers and staff shall, during that period, be subject to the control, superintendence and discipline of the Election Commission.’…”
On Wednesday, Chief Secretary Pant also held a virtual meeting with the DMs, asking them to immediately fill all vacant posts of the EROs and AEROs with designated officers so that they could discharge their election duties properly, sources said.
A senior government official said, “Chief Secretary has directed to fill up all vacant posts of EROs and AEROs by Friday. For both these posts senior officers should be deputed. Till date it seems that the state administration is co-operating with the EC for holding electoral roll revision.”
The EC’s moves in Bengal has come in the backdrop of the raging row over the SIR in Bihar which is headed to the polls in November this year. Like other leaders of the Opposition INDIA bloc, TMC supremo and Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is also up in arms against the SIR, alleging a nexus between the BJP and the EC to manipulate elections.
Earlier this month, Mamata had warned people of Bengal against filling up any form by the EC related to the SIR without “knowing the details”. She had then also claimed that her government would not suspend officials as per the EC’s directive in the “fake voters” row.