4.98 lakh voters did not show up for SIR hearings, 1.63 lakh ‘ineligible’ electors flagged: West Bengal CEO

Despite repeated summons issued to voters, West Bengal’s Chief Electoral Officer on Saturday (February 14, 2026) said 4.98 lakh electors have not showed up for the special intensive revision (SIR) hearings in the State. Additionally, 1.63 lakh voters have been flagged as “ineligible” due to errors.

This comes on the day (February 14) that the SIR hearings were formally completed in the State after a seven-day extension given by the Election Commission (EC).

“For the people whose names are in the draft roll but their names did not feature in the final roll, they will all get an order. Then, they will have a chance to make an appeal to the District Election Officer, and then to the CEO. They can always get their names back [on the rolls] if they were removed due to errors,” Manoj Kumar Agarwal, West Bengal CEO, said.

He added that all SIR hearings have been officially completed in West Bengal within the extended deadline.

For fresh inclusions

Mr. Agarwal added that this is not the end of inclusions and deletions from the voter list as voters can still apply for fresh inclusions through Form 6 during other upcoming elections.

However, all the 4.98 lakh no-shows at hearings and 1.63 lakh ineligible voters could be removed from the 2026 final voter list of West Bengal.

Around 58 lakh voters were deleted after the draft electoral rolls were published. They came under the dead, permanently shifted, untraceable categories. Over 94.49 lakh people were summoned for hearings under the logical discrepancies category, and 31.68 lakh were classified as “unmapped”, they were also asked to appear for hearings.

A total of 7,66,37,529 electors were enrolled in West Bengal’s voter list as of October 27, 2025, before the SIR exercise started. Of them, 7,08,16,630 names have featured in the draft voters’ list.

Calling upon the Electoral Registration Officers and Assistant Electoral Registration Officers, he said: “It is now all on them to do their jobs without fear or favour so we can get a clean voter list in West Bengal, which does not remove any valid voter but also does not add any fake or illegal voter.” He added that the EROs and AEROs must follow all EC guidelines and make decisions about voters after verifying all documents.

According to sources in the CEO’s office, they also received 42,501 Form 7 submissions. However, they did not share whether the verdict on voter deletions based on the Form 7 submissions has been reached.

The final voter list is set to be published on February 28, after which the election dates are likely to be declared. The 2026 State Assembly elections are expected to take place in the next few months.