Roll observer Smita Pandey conducts door-to-door survey in Barabani constituency

Smita Pandey, Roll Observer of the Election Commission of India (ECI), today visited Kesardi Adivasi Para, under Kalla Gram Panchayat of Salanpur block, Chittaranjan block and Mohanpur in Barabani block, within the Barabani Assembly constituency.

She conducted a door-to-door survey to check how many residents had filled in the enumeration forms, the number submitted, and the status of final uploads.

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She was accompanied by Election Registration Officer (ERO) Koushik Mukherjee, Salanpur Block Development Officer (BDO) Debanjan Biswas, Joint BDO Ravi Sourav, and Assistant Development Officer (ADO) Rajarshi Mukherjee during the survey of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) work in the constituency.

Sources said several political parties had lodged complaints with the ECI alleging that, during the recent SIR exercise, many people had submitted enumeration forms linking themselves to their parents or grandparents. The numbers were reportedly significant and required verification.

Following these complaints, West Bengal Special Observer Subrata Gupta and the ECI decided that, after the month-long SIR process conducted by Booth Level Officers (BLOs), certain areas would be rechecked through field visits and door-to-door scrutiny.

Pandey also enquired whether residents had faced any difficulties in filling out the enumeration forms, or continued to face problems in the process.

In the 2021 Assembly elections, 2,25,588 voters were enrolled in the Barabani segment. Trinamul Congress candidate Bidhan Upadhyay won the seat in 2011, 2016 and 2021.

Meanwhile, across the nine Assembly constituencies of West Burdwan district, more than three lakh voters have been deleted during the month-long SIR process, mainly due to deaths, relocation, or voters being untraced.

According to the ECI, the names of these voters will not be included in the draft electoral roll, which is scheduled to be released tomorrow.