Suvendu Adhikari, Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly and senior leader of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), on Monday demanded a full audit of the state’s ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, raising strong objections to what he described as an “abnormal surge” in the number of entries between November 26 and 28. According to BJP’s calculation, approximately 1.25 crore new entries were added during those three days - pushing the total from around 5.50 crore to 6.75 crore.
“We have placed a demand for the audit of the entries for the three days by the team of central observers who have been specially deputed by the ECI for West Bengal to review the SIR process. … During the three days, there were a record 1.25 crore enumeration form entries. This is a scam and should be investigated by the commission”, Suvendu Adhikari told media after meeting the CEO in Kolkata on Monday.
But if Adhikari’s claim is juxtaposed with the recent SIR drive in Bihar, then the high-speed digitisation and bulk additions (or updates) may in fact be feasible under the right conditions.
Here’s why -
The final roll published by the Election Commission of India (ECI) showed a final electorate in Bihar of about 7.42 crore.
Between July 8 and July 11, 2025, the cumulative number of digitised enumeration forms rose from 1.43 crore to 3.73 crore - a net increase of 2.3 crore forms in just three days.
Another 2.01 crore forms were digitised between July 11 and July 14. Two back to back spikes that BJP never complained about.
On July 12, the ECI reportedly processed 93 lakh forms in a 24-hour period. Thats in one single day.
The surge of 1.25 crore voter’ digitisation in three days in Bengal, as claimed by Adhikari, thus falls short of the speed with which SIR was executed in Bihar between June and September, 2025. Bihar’s speed of digitisation of enumeration forms was 85% higher than Bengal. In effect, the Bihar experience suggests that with a large corps of Booth Level Officers (BLOs), digital infrastructure via the ECINet portal, and coordinated ground-level work, rapid enumeration and digitisation - even on a massive scale, are within the operational capacity of the ECI.
Why the BJP insists on audit
Adhikari and the BJP have made several demands and raised multiple concerns:
A comprehensive audit of the 1.25 crore entries from November 26–28 by central observers and technical teams of the ECI.
Investigation into role of alleged external actors - EROs/AEROs not meeting formal rank criteria
Removal of questionable entries - including allegedly “illegal infiltrators” and deceased voters and re-verification of the affected rolls.
The BJP argues that unless the SIR entries, especially the bulk addition over the contentious three days, are audited, the credibility of the entire electoral roll revision in West Bengal will remain in doubt.
What the Bihar comparison and ECI data suggest
The Bihar SIR outcome strengthens the argument that large-scale, rapid digitisation and bulk updates are technically and operationally possible under the ongoing national SIR framework. If what happened in Bihar is all fair then it undermines any blanket claim that a large addition (1.25 crore in three days) is “statistically impossible.”
