Kolkata, Dec 2 || 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.