Kolkata, Dec 13 (IANS) A total of 10 electoral registration officers (EROs) will be handling hearings on claims and objections for each of the 294 Assembly constituencies in West Bengal in the second phase of the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in the state, which will start after the publication of the draft voters’ list on December 16.

A total of 2,940 EROs will be handling the phase of hearings on claims and objections for the 294 constituencies, with the state Chief Electoral Officer already informing the Election Commission of India (ECI) headquarters in New Delhi about this requirement, CEO’s office sources said.

The total number of voters as per the current list as of October 27, 2025, is 7,66,37,529. The SIR exercise started on November 4. The draft voters’ list will be published on December 16, which will end the first stage of the three-stage SIR exercise.

Thereafter, the ECI will start the second phase of the revision exercise, which will basically involve filing claims and objections, and the notice phase — which is issuance, hearing, verification, and decision on enumeration forms and disposal of claims and objections — to be done concurrently by the EROs.

The final voters’ list will be published on February 14, 2026

“It will be wrong to think that 100 per cent of the voters qualifying for enlistment in the draft voters’ list will be exempted from being summoned to attend the hearing. Voters qualifying for enlistment in the draft voters’ list but having data ambiguity in progeny mapping will also be summoned for a hearing and asked to explain the ambiguity,” a CEO’s office source said.

The ECI has decided to hand over the separate lists of excludable voters to the booth-level agents (BLAs) of all the political parties in the state that are registered with it.

This decision is aimed at bringing transparency to the process of hearing on claims and objections that will happen in the second stage of the SIR exercise

–IANS

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