Overview

• An ECI team led by Deputy Election Commissioner Gyanesh Bharti reviewed West Bengal’s readiness and told districts to finish Special Intensive Revision groundwork between October 11 and 15, warning of strict action for delays.
• Bengal officials were instructed to locally print at least 20–30% of enumeration forms within days of notification and to equip BLOs with ECI apps and new digital modules for door-to-door work.
• The Supreme Court directed Bihar legal services authorities to provide free counsel and para-legal assistance to roughly 3.7 lakh people excluded after the Bihar SIR so they can file appeals, with a status report due and the next hearing fixed for October 16.
• Congress’s EAGLE group and P. Chidambaram questioned Bihar’s final roll of 7.42 crore, citing 67.3 lakh deletions, alleged over five lakh duplicate entries, and the lack of machine-readable, consolidated data and full Form-6 records for additions.
• The EC has yet to finalize dates or detailed guidelines for a nationwide SIR, creating uncertainty that reporters note is affecting the usual annual Special Summary Revision timeline, while the Supreme Court will hear on October 13 a PIL seeking an SIT probe and machine-readable rolls.