West Bengal is more likely to get almost 14,000 extra polling cubicles forward of the 2026 meeting elections, with the Election Fee calling an all-party assembly on August 29 to debate the proposed reorganisation of polling stations, officers mentioned on Saturday. West Bengal at present has a little bit over 78,000 cubicles, unfold throughout 294 meeting constituencies.
In line with officers within the workplace of the state’s Chief Electoral Officer, polling stations with greater than 1,200 electors shall be bifurcated to ease voting.
“Cubicles with over 1,200 voters have already been recognized. These shall be cut up to make sure easy polling. It’s doubtless that the variety of cubicles will go up by 14,000. We shall be discussing the rationalisation of cubicles with the political events through the all-party meet,” an official of the CEO workplace mentioned.
With the addition of round 14,000 new ones, the overall quantity is predicted to the touch 92,000. The all-party assembly, scheduled on the CEO’s workplace on August 29 at 3.30 pm, will search political events’ suggestions on the revised sales space allocation.
Political circles really feel the enlargement will pose organisational challenges, significantly for opposition events, which can discover it tough to deploy booth-level brokers (BLAs) throughout the elevated variety of stations.
Considerably, the event comes in opposition to the backdrop of disciplinary motion in opposition to 4 officers in West Bengal for alleged lapses within the voter listing revision.
The state authorities suspended two EROs and two assistant EROs from South 24 Parganas and Purba Medinipur districts and initiated departmental proceedings, however stopped in need of submitting FIRs in opposition to them as directed by the EC.
The suspended officers — Debottam Dutta Chowdhury (ERO) and Tathagata Mandal (AERO) from Baruipur East, and Biplab Sarkar (ERO) and Sudipta Das (AERO) from Moyna — are accused of great procedural violations, together with sharing login credentials and compromising knowledge safety protocols.
The lapses allegedly led to irregularities within the voter rolls of Baruipur East and Moyna meeting constituencies. The EC is carefully monitoring West Bengal’s compliance with its directives even because it pushes for the well timed completion of the electoral roll revision and reorganisation of polling stations earlier than the subsequent main electoral train within the state.
