Kolkata: The Election Commission (EC) has introduced a new website ceowestbengal.wb.gov.in for the electors in Bengal to verify their or their parents’ names in the electoral rolls from 23 years ago.
The EC has announced the special intensive revision (SIR) for Bengal, where the Assembly elections are scheduled to be held in the summer of 2026. The last such large-scale exercise in Bengal had happened in 2002.
The 2002 voter list has assumed fresh importance as the EC undertakes the SIR exercise across Bengal, covering nearly 7.62 crore voters. In 2002, there were around 4.58 crore voters in Bengal.
Under the rules, voters whose names or their parents’ names are found in the 2002 list would not have to submit any fresh documents to the election office for fresh inclusion in the electoral rolls.
Since the announcement, several thousand voters attempted to verify their names in the list, which, for many, was inaccessible.
Users across the state reported repeated “HTTP Error 404” and “Service Unavailable” messages while attempting to access the rolls. The site occasionally opened on some devices but remained erratic overall.
The EC informed that the server crash occurred due to an unexpected surge in traffic, with thousands attempting to access the site simultaneously. The EC also clarified that data migration from the NIC to the State Data Centre was also underway, causing temporary disruptions.
The Commission has now assured that the new website is fully operational and allows voters to view PDFs of the 2002 electoral rolls.
The new link should resolve most issues. A helpline (1800-11-1950) has also been launched, though many callers reported long waits.
Voters who managed to access the list have faced another challenge: tracing names from a pre-delimitation era. With constituency and booth boundaries redrawn after the delimitation exercise, once in 2008 and a limited one in 2015-16, several electors have struggled to locate their polling stations.
The EC continues to maintain that there is no cause for concern and that all eligible voters will have opportunities to verify and update their details during the ongoing SIR process.