New Delhi: Cricketer Mohammad Shami and his brother Mohammad Kaif will have to appear for hearings under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise, which is currently underway in West Bengal, ahead of the 2026 assembly elections.
A notice issued to Shami required him to appear for a hearing Monday, but he was unable to do so as he is currently playing for Bengal in the Vijay Hazare Trophy tournament. The notice was issued over an incorrectly filled or incomplete enumeration form, according to sources in the state.
It’s standard in the SIR process to summon registered voters for verification when forms are incomplete. Shami’s hearing has now been rescheduled for 9-11 January.
Shami is a voter from Kolkata’s Rashbehari assembly constituency. Hailing from Uttar Pradesh’s Amroha, he relocated to West Bengal in the 2000s. After playing for Dalhousie Athletic Club, the cricketer had been representing Town Club when he was selected for the Bengal U-22 team. He later joined Mohun Bagan, followed by his Ranji Trophy debut for Bengal in the 2010–11 season.
Of the 7.66 crore total voters in West Bengal, just 7.08 crore had submitted their enumeration forms for participating in the SIR exercise. Over 58 lakh voters, or 7.6 percent of the voters, have been dropped from the West Bengal draft electoral rolls since then.
The deleted 58.2 lakh voters include 24.16 lakh or 3.15 percent who were found to have died, 32.65 lakh or 4.26 percent who were found to have shifted or were absent from their residence during the exercise, and 1.38 lakh or 0.18 percent who were found enrolled as voters at other places as well, the Election Commission of India has outlined.
The filing of claims and objections started on 16 December 2025 and will continue till 15 January 2026. In parallel, the commission is issuing notices for hearings and verifications, which will continue till 7 February 2026.
The SIR exercise has remained controversial in the state, with West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, in a letter to Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar on 3 January 2026, urging a halt to the exercise. Mamata had placed on record her “grave concern regarding the serious irregularities, procedural violations, and administrative lapses being witnessed” during the ongoing SIR exercise.
In response, BJP MLA Suvendu Adhikari wrote to Gyanesh Kumar Monday, saying that Mamata’s call to halt the SIR exercise was “nothing short of an admission of defeat”.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
Also Read: Deaths, boycotts over workload threaten to derail SIR. BLOs ask ‘how long should we work?’