NEW DELHI: The Election Commission of India (ECI) has rejected the Trinamool Congress’s (TMC) demand to allow its Booth Level Agents (BLAs) to be present during the second phase of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise, which involves hearings on claims and objections.
According to sources in the ECI, accepting the TMC’s request would necessitate extending the same permission to other political parties registered with the Commission, including six national parties and two state parties in West Bengal.
In such a scenario, sources said, each hearing table would have as many as 11 individuals, one Electoral Registration Officer (ERO), one Assistant Electoral Registration Officer (AERO), one micro-observer and eight BLAs representing the eight recognised political parties, in addition to the voter, who usually attends with one or two companions.
Allowing such a large number of people to crowd a single hearing table would make it virtually impossible for electoral officers to conduct the hearings effectively. For this reason, permitting BLAs to be present during the hearing sessions was ruled out, the sources added.
According to the ECI website, the TMC and the All India Forward Bloc are the two state parties in West Bengal registered with the poll panel. The six national parties are the BJP, the INC, the CPI(M), the AAP, the BSP and the NPP.
The TMC leadership, however, has alleged that the ECI deliberately rejected its plea, claiming the Commission is aware that other registered political parties in the state, particularly the BJP, do not have sufficient strength to field BLAs at all hearing tables. ECI sources dismissed this claim, stating that the poll panel cannot operate on conjecture regarding the organisational strength of individual parties.
“The Commission has to apply uniform rules for all political parties, and these rules are framed on the basis of practical applicability. Hence, the rule of not allowing BLAs at the hearing sessions applies uniformly to all political parties,” an ECI source said.
In West Bengal, the draft electoral rolls were published on December 16, 2025, and the final voters’ list is scheduled to be published on February 14, 2026. Shortly thereafter, the ECI is expected to announce the polling dates for the Assembly elections in the state, which are due later this year.