The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Sunday clarified that a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in West Bengal and in other states will be decided by the Election Commission at an appropriate time, which is clarified by Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, addressing the press on Sunday. His comments were made when he responded to a question in a press conference in New Delhi on whether an SIR exercise could be conducted in Bengal.
Kumar said that a decision on that would be made by the three (election) commissioners, at the right time, and an announcement made as to when this exercise would be done either in West Bengal or in any other part of the country.
The situation of SIR in Bengal has been a politically active one. The ECI released in July the statistics of the previous SIR carried out in the state in 2002. The roll published was 11 out of 23 districts in Cooch Behar, Jalpaiguri, Darjeeling, Uttar Dinajpur, Dakshin Dinajpur, Malda, Nadia, Howrah, Hooghly, Midnapore, and Bankura, covering 103 of Bengal out of 294 assembly constituencies.
Arguments for holding a new SIR have emerged strongly since the reports of the exercise in Bihar, which is going to a poll. The move was heavily criticised by the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) in Bengal, who said the revision was being taken as a backdoor implementation of the National Register of Citizens (NRC). This was publicly countered by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who on July 21 had announced that she was not going to permit an SIR in the state. She equally instructed Booth Level Officers (BLOs) so that the names of voters are not unjustly deleted and that people are not intimidated during this process.
Although the Election Commission never rejects the possibility of an SIR in Bengal, the last word will be in the hands of the three-person commission, and any announcement will be coming at the appropriate time.
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