The Election Commission is set to publish the final voter list after the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in West Bengal today, 28 February, months ahead of assembly elections in the Trinamool Congress-ruled state.
The voter list to be published today will classify at least 7.08 crore electors in the state as ‘approved’, ‘deleted’ or ‘under adjudication’.
The draft rolls published on 16 December saw the electorate shrink from 7.66 crore to 7.08 crore, with over 58 lakh names deleted due to death, migration, duplication or untraceability.
The second phase covered hearings for 1.67 crore electors – 1.36 crore flagged for “logical discrepancies” and 31 lakh lacking mapping. Around 60 lakh voters remain under adjudication.
NRC through the backdoor: TMC
The Election Commissionwhich announced the SIR for the whole country on 24 June last year, has carried out the exercise in 13 states/UTs so far, including West Bengal. However, the exercise became a political flashpoint ahead of the state’s polls.
The poll panel maintains the exercise is “routine and necessary to ensure accuracy”. But the ruling TMC has mounted fierce resistance, branding the SIR as “NRC through the backdoor”.
Among the petitioners challenging the SIR order in the Supreme Court is West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjeewho, in an unprecedented move on 4 February, appeared in the top court seeking that the next Assembly election be conducted on the existing 2025 rolls.
“Lakhs of genuine voters are at risk of exclusion. This is not revision, this is omission,” Banerjee said, alleging that genuine names were “surreptitiously removed” under the pretext of discrepancies.
Earlier this month, the Supreme Court directed the deployment of serving and former district judges to assist the EC in the special intensive revision of voter list in the state.
The top court also permitted the EC to publish a draft list of voters in the state by 28 February, while allowing the poll panel to also issue supplementary lists later.
WWW.The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has unequivocally backed the revision. The CPI(M) and the Congress have opposed the timing and manner of the exercise.
Deaths linked to ‘disenfranchisement’
The SIR has also been linked to fears of disenfranchisement in West Bengal. The TMC has claimed at least 120 deaths since the beginning of the exercise on 4 November, including alleged suicides by voters and booth-level officers during the process. The BJP has dismissed attempts to link the alleged deaths directly to the revision, accusing the ruling party of “fear-mongering for political mileage”.
The EC has reiterated that the SIR is not a citizenship-determination exercise and that aggrieved voters have avenues for redress.
Political apprehension has also been shaped by developments in Biharwhere a similar intensive revision reportedly saw over 40 lakh deletions.
“Bengal is not Bihar. The demography here is uniquely sensitive,” TMC leader Kunal Ghosh was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.
West Bengal final voter list 2026
The voters can check whether their names appear on the list. Here’s a simple guide explaining how you can easily find your name in the final voter list 2026:
- ECINET mobile app
- www.voters.eci.gov.in
- www.ceowestbengal.wb.gov.in
Or you may have to visit your polling station or contact your BLO
How to find your name on voters.eci.gov.in
-Visit the official website of ECI at www.voters.eci.gov.in.
-Click on ‘Download Electoral Roll’ under the’Services’ section
-A new page will appear on the screen
-Select the following details on the portal: State – West Bengal, Year of Revision – 2026, Roll Type – SIR Final Roll 2026, District – as applicable, Assembly Constituency – as applicable and Language – as preferred.
-Choose your polling station name from the list and click on “Download Selected PDFs” to access the voter list.
Lakhs of genuine voters are at risk of exclusion. This is not revision, this is omission.
(With inputs from agencies)
