SIR hearings for 32 lakh 'unmapped' voters begins in Bengal

Siliguri (West Bengal) [India], December 27 (ANI): The hearings for the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) electoral rolls of the around 32 lakh unmapped voters, whose names could not be linked to family members in the 2002 Electoral Rolls, commenced on Saturday.
The Bharatiya Janata Party, the Trinamool Congress, and other parties have set up camps to assist voters.
In Siliguri, BJP MLA Sankar Ghosh told ANI, "Here, those people who are called for the hearing from the Siliguri Assembly informed me that there are some minor mismatches. For that, they are called for the hearing and treated as the unmapped voter. I have spoken with them, and they are showing the required documents... They will submit these documents to the hearing officer. They say there is no such problem they have to face in front of the hearing officer. They are confident their name will be listed in the final voter list..."
TMC leader Papiya Ghosh alleged that electors are being forced to prove their citizenship
"What is visible is very dangerous and painful. Everyone who has been coming here since morning has tears in their eyes, and fear on their faces... They have questions in their minds: the Prime Minister was elected with their votes, and the Chief Minister was elected with their votes, so why are they having to endure all this? People who have been voting for years are now being forced to prove whether they are citizens of this country..."
On December 16, the Election Commission published the draft rolls with 58,20,899 electors, accounting for 7.59 per cent, deleted due to death, being untraceable, or permanent migration.
According to a press release by the Election Commission, out of a total 7,66,37,529 voters, 7,08,16,630 electors have submitted their enumeration forms as of December 11.
The poll body stated that genuine electors can still be added back in the electoral rolls during the Claims and Objections period from December 16 to January 15, 2026.
"The successful completion of this phase is the result of coordinated efforts of DEOs of all 24 districts, 294 EROs, 3059 AEROs, and BLOs deployed at 80,681 polling booths, supported by volunteers. Field representatives of all eight recognised political parties, including their District Presidents, also actively participated, with as many as 1,81,454 Booth Level Agents (BLAs) appointed by them," the Chief Electoral Officer of West Bengal said.
The poll body has received 3,24,800 Forms 6 (with or without declaration) so far for inclusion of new electors. After the inquiry and collection of the declaration form, names will be added to the electoral rolls. (ANI)