Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar on Tuesday held a press convention in Kolkata for the primary time since taking workplace final yr and briefed the media on the Election Fee’s two-day evaluation of preparations for the West Bengal Meeting elections. Listed here are three takeaways from the CEC’s speech and solutions to questions.
It’s unclear what is going to occur to the 6 million electors whose eligibility is being examined if an election is introduced. With parliamentary elections scheduled to be introduced within the coming days, the CEC was requested to make clear whether or not the ballot physique can proceed with asserting the election schedule if the circumstances of 60 million electors will not be dealt with by judicial officers appointed by order of the Supreme Court docket. As of Tuesday, the Supreme Court docket was knowledgeable that roughly 1 million of the circumstances had been disposed of, which means that electors had been both discovered eligible and entered on the electoral roll, or ineligible and faraway from the electoral roll.
The CEC was additionally requested whether or not these nonetheless in adjudication on the time the vote is taken will probably be allowed to vote by way of a young poll. He didn’t give a particular reply, however stated the method was being carried out in accordance with the Supreme Court docket’s orders. On February 20, the courtroom ordered the judiciary to rule on the case and ordered the EC to publish a supplementary record that will probably be thought-about a part of the ultimate electoral roll to be printed on February 28. To this point, no supplementary record has been printed.
Totally different remedies for Bengal
Based on the CEC, completely different therapy was given in West Bengal on account of pending circumstances. To a query on why the EC had deployed micro-observers solely in West Bengal throughout the Particular Intensive Revision (SIR) of the Electoral Register, the CEC stated the rationale was that it had discovered numerous circumstances pending with the Election Registrar Officer (ERO). Whereas the EC deployed micro-observers, who’re central authorities staff, solely in West Bengal to evaluation choices taken by the statutory authorities (ERO and ERO Assistant), SIR was being carried out concurrently in eight different states and three Union Territories. It was the primary time anyplace within the nation that the fee deployed micro-observers to revise the electoral roll.
“In West Bengal, there have been numerous pending circumstances on the stage of assistant election registrar and ERO, so there was a must appoint micro-observers and perform doc verification in a rigorous method,” Kumar stated.
What makes this stand out is that on 19 December 2025, simply three days after the publication of the draft, the EC deployed a complete of roughly 8,100 microobservers with written directions. Based on the EC’s personal schedule talked about in its December 16 press notice, ERO and Eros had till February 7 to conduct public hearings and confirm paperwork. The final day of public hearings was then postponed to February 14th, and the final date for processing claims and objections was February twenty first.
CEC warns of ‘partisan conduct’ by law enforcement officials
West Bengal is the one state the place the CEC has emphasised zero tolerance for ‘partisan’ conduct by officers.
Final month, the committee comprising CEC and Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, accompanied by senior officers, visited all of the 5 states and UTs the place elections are scheduled, beginning with Assam, beginning with Puducherry, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and at last Bengal this week. On the finish of the evaluation assembly, the CEC held a press convention, as is customary for such pre-poll visits. In any respect 5 press conferences, the CEC gave almost similar shows on preparations, new initiatives, and directions to enforcement businesses.
Nevertheless, Tuesday’s press convention noticed extra slides that weren’t included within the different 4 states and UTs. The slide introduced by Kumar was titled “Absolute non-partisan conduct of civil servants” and stated there are restrictions on the participation of energetic or retired authorities staff in political actions. Three related guidelines had been cited from the West Bengal Companies (Duties, Rights and Duties of Civil Servant) Guidelines, 1980, All India Companies (Conduct) Guidelines, 1968 and Central Civil Service (Conduct) Guidelines, 1965. Related guidelines for state PSUs and company staff had been additionally flagged. “These individuals is not going to work for any political get together or candidate,” the CEC stated.
The CEC’s emphasis on guidelines and the necessity for non-partisan conduct by officers comes within the backdrop of the BJP’s allegation that the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) authorities pressured state authorities staff, booth-level officers and EROs, to not take away the names of ineligible electors throughout the SIR interval. In the meantime, the TMC has accused the Bharatiya Janata Celebration of utilizing the EC to focus on Bengal by way of the SIR, ensuing within the deletion of over one billion electoral votes.
