Chief Electoral Officer begins training of EROs and DEOs for SIR in West Bengal

The Office of the Chief Electoral Officer, West Bengal, on Wednesday (October 29, 2025) started the training process of Electoral Registration Officers (ERO), District Election Officers (DEO), and other officers who will part of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral roll in the State. Meanwhile, the Left party leaders staged a protest outside the CEO office to voice their concerns against the SIR process. 

“Training on SIR will be held today with all DEOs, EROs, AEROs, SLMT in Video Conference mode by CEO West Bengal along with other Officers from today. Senior DEC, ECI and other ECI Officers are also taking part in the discussion,” an official at the CEO, West Bengal office said on Wednesday. 

In a related development, the Election Commission of India (ECI) started a National Voter Helpline and all 36 State and District-level helplines to address queries and grievances of Indian voters. 

They have also started a ‘Book-a-Call with BLO’ facility where voters in each location can call their respective area BLOs to enquire about their questions. 

In an all-party meeting held at the CEO, West Bengal office in Kolkata on Tuesday, political parties like Trinamool Congress and Communist Party of India (Marxist) raised questions about “genuine voters” being excluded in the “hurried” SIR process. 

To address the concern, Chief Electoral Officer of West Bengal Manoj Kumar Agarwal, said that ‘no legitimate voters’ will be removed from the voters’ list during the process. 

According to figures shared by the CEO’s office, the total number of electors in West Bengal as of October 28, 2025, stands at 7,66,37,529, with an average of around 950 voters or 200 to 300 families per polling station. The number of BLOs stand at 80,681 in West Bengal. They are set to start a door-to-door exercise to hand out enumeration forms between November 4 to December 4. 

Political leaders protest 

Left Front parties like the CPI(M), Revolutionary Socialist Party, Socialist Unity Centre of India (Communist), and Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) Liberation leaders were present at the protest outside the CEO, West Bengal office in Kolkata on Wednesday. They protested under veteran politician, CPI(M) Biman Basu’s leadership. 

“The process needs to be transparent. There can be no party politics in this, so that common citizens do not have to bear the whole load, the Block Level Officers (BLOs) must also take responsibility,” Mr. Basu said after the protests. 

Meanwhile, Congress State President Subhankar Sarkar also raised questions about the SIR process and said that it is raising panic among the people of Bengal. 

“When people are constantly worried about their livelihood, it is the responsibility of the government authorities to take care of the lives of the common man... Instead, now they are being asked questions about their citizenship, this is dire situation. This is a cause of concern, we are scared about the future of Bengal,” Mr. Sarkar added. 

He also raised questions about why the SIR process is being conducted within such a short period of time and unlike the 2002 SIR where it took 2 years to complete the whole process. “Why spread fear in people before the 2026 elections?” Mr. Sarkar asked.