West Bengal CEO seeks one-week extension for SIR deadline; 5% hearings pending

The Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of West Bengal on Saturday (February 7, 2026) sought a one-week extension from the Election Commission of India (ECI) to complete the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, as around 5% of the hearings remain pending after the original deadline expired on Saturday (February 7, 2026).  

In a recommendation sent to the ECI on Saturday (February 7, 2026), CEO Manoj Kumar Agarwal sought additional time to complete hearings, upload documents, process submissions of forms 6, 7 and 8, and digitise all records. The proposed revised deadline for completing the groundwork is February 14. The final rolls were earlier scheduled to be published on February 14. If the extension is approved, officials said the publication of the final rolls could be pushed to February 21. 

According to officials in the CEO office, hearings are pending in about 11 of the State’s 294 Assembly constituencies. 

“About 95-97% of the hearings have been completed, and over 75% of the digitisation process is done. We have sought a seven-day extension from the ECI, which may further push the publication of the final electoral rolls by a few days,” Mr. Agarwal said. 

He added that he received multiple requests from District Electoral Officers (DEO) for a deadline extension, following which the recommendation was forwarded to the ECI. As of Saturday evening, no formal confirmation on the date extension had been received from the Commission. 

Sources in the CEO office said that pending hearings include one constituency in north Kolkata, seven in south Kolkata, one in Darjeeling, one in Howrah, and a few others. Voters who fail to appear for their scheduled hearings even after the extended deadline risk deletion from the final electoral roll for 2026. 

Following the publication of the first draft electoral roll in December, around 58 lakh voters were deleted under categories such as death, permanent address shift, or untraceable. Additionally, over 1.36 crore voters were flagged under the “logical discrepancy” category and were issued notices to appear for hearings.  

However, an updated list released in early January showed that the number of voters with logical discrepancies had come down to 94.49 lakh. Around 31.68 lakh voters were classified as the “unmapped” category—those unable to establish any link to the 2002 electoral roll through either self-mapping or progeny mapping.  

Meanwhile, according to an official notification issued on Friday (February 6, 2026), the ECI clarified that domicile or permanent resident certificates issued by West Bengal authorities would be accepted as valid proof of identity during SIR hearings. However, such certificates will be valid only if issued by the district magistrate, additional district magistrate, sub-divisional officer or the Collector (Kolkata).