The West Bengal assembly election has just ended with the swearing in of the new government on 9 May 2026. The process started some time in November 2025 with Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls conducted by the Election Commission of India (ECI). The SIR process was challenged by the previous government through writ petitions in Calcutta High Court and in the Supreme Court. The last SIR was conducted in 2002 but the process started in 2000. There was a gap of two years between initiation of the process and publication of the final electoral roll. SIR 2025 was no doubt a hurried and hasty process. In the bureaucratic hierarchy of the ECI, the functionaries at the lowest level were the Booth Level Officers (BLOs).

The BLOs were hired for SIR on contract for a fixed remuneration. They were mostly school teachers and were given time-bound assignments to complete the process. The BLOs were new to the job and were given short on-the-job training. Unable to bear the pressure of work and elaborate job description, there were instances of suicides by BLOs, a sad and unfortunate end of lives for being on a job not familiar to them. The SIR process was no doubt a herculean task. The BLOs were required to visit every residential unit in their area of jurisdiction with the enumeration form and get them collected days later. Many voters could not fill up enumeration forms correctly because of lack of knowledge and information. There were several discrepancies in SIR 2002 which was the fundamental data base for SIR 2025. A male voter was shown as a female and vice-versa. In many........

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