EC suspends 4 Bengal officials for roll lapses

The Election Commission (EC) on Tuesday suspended four West Bengal poll officials and initiated disciplinary proceedings against them after receiving a report from the state Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) on alleged wrongful addition of names of voters in the electoral rolls of two Assembly constituencies.

The prompt action incidentally came just a day after Home Minister Amit Shah met BJP’s key Bengal leaders, including its president Samik Bhattacharya. Shah is learnt to have told the leader to aggressively spread awareness about the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and how it would help “clean up” the voters’ list and remove illegal enumerators.

While the BJP is bullish about introducing the SIR in West Bengal, where the Assembly elections are due in May 2026, the ruling TMC and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee have strongly opposed the exercise, currently being undertaken in Bihar.

Mamata has been alleging that the EC was acting at the behest of the BJP-led central government, and that the move was part of its “backdoor tactics” to implement the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in the state. The BJP has been pushing for the SIR in the state, claiming that a large number of infiltrators had become voters due to the alleged patronage of the TMC.