Ahead of the 2026 West Bengal assembly elections, the Election Commission has appointed five nodal officers to supervise the First Level Checking (FLC) of electronic voting machines (EVMs), a process that marks the start of preparations on the ground.
All five officers are from outside West Bengal, the poll panel said on Sunday, reiterating its practice of deploying officials from other states for key stages of the election process.
The officers have been appointed as observers at different FLC venues across the state.
They are Shania Kayem Mize, deputy chief electoral officer of Arunachal Pradesh; Yogesh Gosavi, deputy CEO of Maharashtra; P K Boro, additional CEO of Meghalaya; Ethel Rothangpuii, joint CEO of Mizoram; and Kanishka Kumar, under secretary of the Election Commission of India.
The Commission also said it has introduced rules under which the image of each candidate will be displayed on the EVM, a step aimed at giving voters clearer information at the time of polling.
West Bengal had more than 80,000 polling booths during the 2021 assembly elections. According to an EC official, that number is expected to rise by over 10,000 after the ongoing enumeration exercise, pointing to a larger logistical exercise in the run-up to next year’s polls.
