With just 72 hours to go for Bengal’s first phase of polling, the Election Commission has enforced strict door-to-door voter slip delivery, enhanced ID checks, and last-minute roll verification to crack down on bogus voting and impersonation.
With just 72 hours left for the first phase of polling on April 23, the Election Commission has rolled out an aggressive last-mile verification and voter slip distribution protocol across West Bengal, aiming to clamp down on impersonation, bogus voting, and electoral fraud.
- In a significant tightening of procedures, Booth Level Officers (BLOs) have been directed to carry out door-to-door voter slip delivery, ensuring that each slip reaches the intended voter.
- In cases where the voter is unavailable, slips can only be handed over to an adult family member after strict ID verification, eliminating the possibility of slips being misused.
- The Commission has explicitly barred bulk distribution of voter slips, a practice often flagged in past elections as a loophole for organised malpractice.
- BLOs are now mandated to obtain signatures upon delivery, creating a documented audit trail of each slip handed out.
- Further, if a voter slip cannot be delivered, BLOs must record detailed reasons, which will be escalated to the Presiding Officer on polling day, ensuring that every missing link is tracked and monitored in real time.
- In another layer of scrutiny, voters arriving at polling booths without slips will face enhanced identity checks, with officials required to verify documents rigorously and even question the reason behind not collecting the slip.
Crucially, the Commission has ordered a last-minute purification of electoral rolls, directing BLOs to re-verify the existence of voters listed, flagging cases of deceased, missing, or duplicate entries.
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These findings will be shared with Returning Officers and made available to Presiding Officers to prevent any attempt at identity fraud on polling day.
The multi-layered intervention underscores the Commission’s intent to shut down traditional routes of electoral manipulation, particularly impersonation using fake or unverified voter identities.
Whether these stringent measures succeed in altering the credibility of the electoral process will become evident as West Bengal votes in the opening phase on April 23.
Published: 20 Apr 2026, 12:06 pm IST
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