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Key Points

West Bengal's Chief Electoral Officer is creating a comprehensive digital database of polling booths for the upcoming 2026 Assembly elections. The initiative aims to provide voters with detailed, advance information about their designated voting locations. This database will include critical details like booth infrastructure, accessibility features, and precise geographical information. The project responds to Election Commission guidelines requiring no more than 1,200 voters per polling station, resulting in a 17% increase in total polling booths.

Key Points: Bengal CEO Expands Polling Booths for 2026 Assembly Elections

  • New database tracks 94,000 polling booths across West Bengal
  • Voter booth count increases by 17% from previous elections
  • ECI mandates maximum 1,200 voters per polling station
  • Detailed infrastructure and accessibility information will be mapped
3 min read

Bengal CEO office begins process of creating database of polling booths

West Bengal election body creates comprehensive polling booth database to help voters locate and prepare for upcoming state assembly elections

"The sole aim is to ensure voters have advance information about their polling booth - CEO Office Insider"

Kolkata, Sep 20

In order to help the voters of West Bengal to have a first-hand and detailed information about the polling booths where they will be supposed to caste their voters in the crucial state assembly elections scheduled next year, the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), West Bengal has started the process of creating a virtual and compressive data base of such booths.

An insider from the CEO's office said that the database will be handy for the voters to know their allotted polling booths in advance, considering that, in case of many existing and old voters, the booth numbers where they will be casting their votes next year might be different from the booths that they voted in the previous year.

This will be because West Bengal will be going for the crucial assembly elections next year with an almost 17 per cent increase in the number of polling booths compared to what it was both during the 2024 Lok Sabha polls and the 2021 West Bengal Assembly polls.

Again, this will be because the number of booths for the 2026 Assembly election will be with a network of a little over 94,000 booths, a 16.50 per cent rise over the number of booths in the previous elections.

Explaining the reason behind the increase in the number of booths, a CEO office insider said that as per the directive of the Election Commission of India (ECI), this time the total number of voters in a single booth should not exceed 1,200, and hence, to accommodate that, the number of booths had to be increased.

"Therefore, the CEO's office is preparing a detailed database to keep a clear record of the exact location, infrastructure, and facilities of the old and new booths. Information will be kept on whether all the services are properly available for the voters at each booth. The sole aim of the CEO's office is to ensure that the voters have advance information about the polling booth allotted to him or her in advance so that the voters concerned will not face any difficulty on the polling day," the CEO's office insider said.

The database, the insider added, will contain details on information like the distance of the allotted booth from the residence of the voter concerned, details of available facilities at the booth, like that of a ramp, other facilities like washrooms and toilets, along with other infrastructure conditions there, and the number of exit and entry points there, among others.

"The district and block level electoral administration will have direct access to the database," the insider added.

- IANS

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Reader Comments

R
Rahul R
Good move by CEO office. Hope they also ensure proper facilities at these new booths. Many rural areas still lack basic amenities like drinking water and proper toilets at polling stations.
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Sarah B
As someone who recently moved to Kolkata, this database will be incredibly helpful. Finding my polling station last time was quite challenging without proper information.
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Arun Y
Hope they make this information available in Bengali too, not just English. Many elderly voters in villages need local language support to understand these details properly.
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Michael C
Increasing booths to keep voter count under 1200 per booth is a smart decision. Should reduce waiting times significantly during peak voting hours. 👍
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Nisha Z
While the database is good, I hope they also focus on training the polling staff properly. Last time, many officials seemed confused about procedures which caused delays.

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