The publication of the final voter list has been postponed once again as the Special Intensive Revision process continues. The Election Commission said on Tuesday that the final list will now be released on February 28.
Earlier, the final voter list was scheduled for publication on February 7. That deadline was first pushed to February 14 and has now been extended by another two weeks.
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Revised timeline of the SIR process
On October 28, the Election Commission announced the Special Intensive Revision in 12 states and Union Territories, including West Bengal. From November 4, Booth Level Officers (BLOs) began distributing enumeration forms door-to-door as part of the revision exercise.
Subsequently, on November 30, the Election Commission issued a notification stating that the draft voter list would be published on December 16 instead of December 9. The final voter list was also rescheduled from February 7 to February 14 at that time.
On Monday, West Bengal’s Chief Electoral Officer Manojkumar Agarwal had already indicated that the final voter list would not be published before February 21. He added that efforts were being made to publish the list by February 28.
Complaints, scrutiny and new publication date
During the SIR phase, several complaints were raised regarding the Election Commission’s functioning. Allegations ranged from ordinary voters being summoned repeatedly for hearings to claims that eligible voters’ names were being excluded, citing logical discrepancies. Some of these matters reached the courts.
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On Tuesday, the Election Commission announced from its headquarters in Delhi that the hearing phase would continue until February 14, followed by scrutiny until February 21. After reviewing all aspects of the process, the final voter list will be published on February 28.
