EC Appoints Retired Bureaucrat Subrata Gupta As Special Roll Observer For SIR In West Bengal

The Election Commission has appointed retired IAS officer Subrata Gupta as the ‘Special Roll Observer’ for the SIR exercise in West Bengal, an official said on Saturday.

The Commission has also named 12 IAS officers as Electoral Roll Observers to supervise key aspects of preparing the electoral rolls following the SIR. According to the official, these observers will assist district election officers (DEOs) and electoral registration officers (EROs) in implementing corrective measures during the process.

The appointments come amid of deepening conflict between the Commission and the ruling TMC in the state. A 10-member TMC delegation recently met with EC officials in Delhi to raise serious objections against the SIR, alleging that the exercise

has resulted in the deaths of dozens of Booth Level Officers (BLOs) and accusing the Commission of “blood on their hands.” The party claimed the SIR process was “unplanned and dangerous,” and demanded accountability and transparency.

The EC, however, strongly denied these allegations. It called the death claims “baseless, unfounded and politically motivated,” and issued a warning to the TMC against threatening or pressuring BLOs working on the electoral roll revision. The Commission maintained that the SIR is a routine, constitutionally mandated exercise aimed solely at ensuring a clean and accurate voter list, not a political manoeuvre. 

TMC leaders, meanwhile, have questioned why West Bengal alone appears singled out for such rigorous SIR scrutiny, especially against the backdrop of other border states sharing similar challenges. They say the voter-list corrections carried out so far have led to serious discrepancies, missing entries, and alleged disenfranchisement. 

As the EC pushes ahead with its fresh observer appointments, the SIR exercise in Bengal now seems poised not just for administrative scrutiny but a full-blown political showdown over electoral trust, transparency and public confidence.