Kolkata: The BLOs conducting door-to-door visits will not issue Form 6 to voters whose appeals are already pending before the tribunals, dampening hopes sparked by the Election Commission’s directive to identify deleted voters within a month.More than 85,000 voters in the KMC area have appeals pending before the tribunals. The KMC polls, along with Howrah and five other municipalities, are likely to be held in the last week of Nov.Bengal’s chief electoral officer (CEO) posted on the X handle on Wednesday that “cases rejected by the judicial officers and the appeals at appellate tribunals cannot be decided by the ERO/DEO”. Electoral registration officers (ERO) are the primary authority to take decisions on inclusion or exclusion of voters from the electoral roll. The post on the X handle added that a Supreme Court order on March 10, 2026, said: “Orders passed by the judicial officers will not be subjected to appeal before any executive/administrative officer.”Earlier, a letter from EC that was sent to the DEOs instructed the BLOs to go on “house-to-house visits” to identify voters whose names were deleted. They have to compare the “current electoral roll with the pre-SIR electoral roll and identify such electors whose names were there in the pre-SIR roll but are not included in the current electoral roll”. The officers will prepare a list of all such electors and facilitate their enrolment through Form 6, if the voters are eligible. Each BLO may cover at least 20-25 electors a week and complete the exercise in around a month, the letter read.A district election officer (DEO) said since that letter did not make it clear whether voters who have appealed to the tribunals can be re-enrolled through Form 6, it led to confusion. Wednesday’s post on the X handle cleared the confusion.The CEO’s office had earlier said that any “left out eligible voter” from the list of absentee, shifted, dead and deleted (ASDD) voters can file Form 6 online by visiting the website of chief electoral officer (CEO), West Bengal. First-time voters can also apply online.Sources in the office of Bengal CEO said filing Form 6 – meant for inclusion of new voters – was not allowed for voters whose names were removed by judicial officers. “This was the instruction ahead of April assembly polls and remains so this time too,” said the official.“If an elector’s name has been deleted from the electoral roll and the case has been referred to the tribunal, the BLO will not provide Form 6 to the elector, unless otherwise directed by EC,” Swapan Mondal, general secretary of Vote Karmi O BLO Aikya Mancha, said.During a video conference with the district magistrates on Sept 25, state election commissioner Krishna Gupta directed the officials concerned to complete preparations for holding elections to Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC), Howrah Municipal Corporation (HMC) and the municipalities of Bali, Haldia, Dhupguri, Kalimpong and Kurseong in the last week of Nov.Sources told TOI that though KMC polls will be held based on the electoral roll published on July 1, the law allowed anyone whose name enters the voters’ list till the last date of nomination to be able to vote.“But given the pace of decision on the appeals, most voters are likely to miss voting in KMC polls,” said an official.
