New Delhi, March 13 -- The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Thursday formally appointed returning officers (RO) for all 294 assembly constituencies in West Bengal. For the first time, all 294 constituencies have sub-divisional magistrate-level or higher officers as RO, bringing West Bengal in line with the rest of India. Until now, 152 of Bengal's 294 constituencies were managed by officers below the SDM rank, a senior ECI official said.

The SDMs who will now serve as RO in the upcoming elections had earlier and now serving as Electoral Registration Officers (ERO) during the Special Intensive Revision(SIR) process.

The West Bengal government earlier proposed Group B and Group C officials for the critical roles of RO and Electoral R...