Kolkata: The Left, the Congress and the Mamata All India Trinamool Congress on October 26 joined civil rights organisations and public figures in urging the West Bengal State Election Commission to put off elections to the Kolkata and Howrah municipal corporations. They urged that the polls be held only after voters struck off the rolls during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) have had a chance to be heard.In a memorandum submitted to State Election Commissioner Krishna Gupta, they also asked the commission to use its statutory powers to include in the civic electoral rolls everyone whose appeal is still pending before the SIR appellate tribunals.According to a press release issued by the signatories, the State Election Commissioner’s office said he would meet a delegation of them at 3 pm on Wednesday, October 28, to discuss the memorandum.The memorandum was signed by West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee president Subhankar Sarkar, Lok Sabha MP Sougata Roy of the Mamata All India Trinamool Congress, CPI(M) state committee member Samik Lahiri and CPI(ML) Liberation politburo member Partha Ghosh.Former Rajya Sabha MP and retired IAS officer Jawhar Sircar also signed it, as did Pijush Roy of the Sangrami Gana Mancha, Samsur Mallick of the Nagorik Sommonoy Mancha, human rights activist Sujato Bhadra and Barnali Mukherjee of the Bharat Jodo Abhiyan.‘Disenfranchised a second time’The memorandum said the SIR conducted by the Election Commission of India (ECI) had led to the large-scale exclusion of eligible voters in West Bengal ahead of the Assembly elections in April 2026.The signatories cited data the ECI disclosed in an affidavit to the Supreme Court on September 16, 2026. According to those figures, about 1.2 lakh tribunal appeals were pending in the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) area and about 39,000 in the Howrah Municipal Corporation area.They said ECI data on cases the tribunals had already decided showed that 100 percent of them in Kolkata district and 99 percent in Howrah had gone in favour of inclusion.Excluding around 1.6 lakh appellants in the two corporations from the civic rolls “would disenfranchise them for the second time, after the assembly polls,” the memorandum said. Voters cleared by the tribunals after the roll was frozen in April could not vote in the assembly elections.Also read: The Election Commission Filed 16 Lakh Appeals Against Included Bengal Voters Over Just 3 Days as the Rolls FrozeA correction already under wayThe memorandum noted that the ECI itself has moved to correct the exclusions. On the commission’s instructions, the Chief Electoral Officer of West Bengal began a special drive from October 1 to enrol left-out voters and young, first-time voters.The ECI has also notified a Special Summary Revision of the electoral roll, with January 1, 2027 as the qualifying date. The draft roll is due on November 12, 2026, and the final roll on January 4, 2027.The signatories asked that elections to the Kolkata and Howrah corporations, and to any other municipal body, be held only after this re-enrolment drive and the summary revision are complete. That would mean after January 4, 2027, or any later date the ECI fixes.Holding the civic polls on the current rolls, they argued, would lock out eligible voters who are already in the process of being restored.The legal caseThe signatories pointed to Article 243ZA of the Constitution, which vests the superintendence, direction and control of the preparation of electoral rolls for municipal elections in the State Election Commission.They also cited Section 5 of the West Bengal State Election Commission Act, 1994. Its proviso says the assembly electoral roll in force may, at the State Election Commissioner’s discretion, be adopted for municipal elections “to such extent and in such manner as the State Election Commissioner thinks fit.”That discretion, the memorandum argued, gives the State Election Commission the power to make additions and deletions to the assembly roll before using it for civic polls, including adding the names of pending tribunal appellants.For our full coverage on the SIR and the issues it has brought to citizens, click here.