Kolkata: Around 15,000 additional polling booths, a large chunk of which is likely to be within the private housing complexes, will be set up for the 2026 Assembly in West Bengal, sources in the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) have said.
It is learnt that during the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the total number of polling booths in West Bengal was 80,681, which will increase to 95,668 for the Assembly elections next year. This means that there will be 14,987 additional polling booths in the state next year.
Amid this increase, instructions from the Election Commission of India (ECI) have already reached District Magistrates (also the District Electoral Officers), to identify big housing complexes with high-rise towers where the election booths could be set up.
“So, in the wake of this instruction, it is deemed that a large chunk of the 14,987 additional polling booths will be within such housing complexes. However, the majority of such polling booths within housing complexes will be scattered in and around Kolkata and other major district towns where the number of such housing complexes with high-rise towers is more,” a source in the CEO’s office said.
The number of additional booths in the 2026 Assembly polls will be required following the ECI’s decision that each booth will not have more than 1,200 voters.
Incidentally, last month, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee wrote a letter to the Chief Election Commissioner, Gyanesh Kumar, objecting to the ECI’s proposal for setting up polling stations inside private housing complexes for the Assembly polls scheduled next year.
“This proposal is deeply problematic. Polling stations have always been, and must remain, located in government or semi-government institutions, preferably within a 2 km radius, to ensure accessibility and neutrality. Private buildings are typically avoided for clear reasons: they compromise fairness, violate established norms, and create discriminatory distinctions between privileged residents and the general public — the haves and have-nots,” the Chief Minister’s letter read.
BJP’s Information Technology Cell Chief and the party’s central observer for West Bengal, Amit Malviya, refuted the Chief Minister’s objections on this count and pointed out that any premises can be designated a polling station as long as they ensure ease of voting for all voters.
“Similar booths have been set up in high-rise buildings in Delhi and elsewhere. So why is it suddenly troubling you that the ECI is creating additional booths to make voting more convenient? No booths are being taken away from existing voters. So do explain: What exactly is upsetting you — the increase in voting access, or the collapse of the narrative you’re trying to build?” Malviya questioned then.
Political observers pointed out that ECI had decided to carry forward its decision for setting up polling booths within private housing complexes, ignoring the Chief Minister’s objections on this count.
(IANS)
