New Delhi, Feb. 17 -- Five years ago, West Bengal, Assam, Tamil Nadu and Kerala, along with the Union Territory of Puducherry, went to the polls together as part of a poll season that stretched across March and April 2021. Will it be the same this summer? A protracted Special Intensive Revision (SIR) schedule, which is yet to wind up, delayed security assessments, and availability of forces are complicating the work of the Election Commission of India (ECI), officials said on Monday. They also added that the panel was considering giving Kerala a week more for the SIR process, and compressing the poll schedule in West Bengal from the eight phases the key state saw in 2021. Across the four regions where SIR is still underway, officials indicated that final roll publication and security assessments will ultimately determine whether polling begins in late April and extends into May, rather than replicating the March start seen in 2021. "The situation this time is structurally different from 2021. SIR timelines are not aligned across states. Kerala may need an additional week to clear backlog in hearings and verification, while Bengal could require a much larger concentration of central forces if polling is compressed into fewer phases," said a top ECI official, requesting anonymity. "When one state needs more time for roll finalisation and another demands a higher volume of personnel at the same time, it becomes extremely difficult to club all elections into one continuous schedule. Force availability, movement logistics and statutory timelines have to match perfectly and right now, that alignment is challenging," the official added. On Monday morning, an ECI team left for Assam for the first pre-election review visit. They are scheduled to return by Wednesday evening, with another round of visits planned. The purpose of the visit is to review early election preparedness, including checking the availability and functionality of electronic voting machines (ballot units, control units and VVPATs), assessment of polling personnel deployment, logistics, law and order preparedness, and other ground arrangements. In Assam, the special revision of rolls where no document scrutiny was done is already complete. The final rolls have shed roughly 243,000 names from the draft rolls. The term of the current assembly runs out on May 20. "Since the final electoral roll has already been published, there is no pending statutory process that could hold up the announcement of elections.with the revision complete, the commission can proceed with preparedness reviews and notification in alignment with the assembly's expiry," said an official in the Chief Electoral Officer's (CEO) office. In West Bengal, ECI officials said the CEO initially suggested that the assembly election could be compressed into a maximum of two or three phases, instead of the eight-phase schedule followed in 2021. However, the same officials indicated that implementing a shorter schedule would be a "logistical nightmare". "State administration has estimated that nearly 2,000 CAPF companies amounting to around 2.4 lakh personnel may be required if polling is compressed, almost double the deployment in 2021," EC official cited above said. "In a multi-phase election, once polling in one cluster of constituencies is completed, central forces can be moved and redeployed to the next phase area. Phasing allows staggered deployment.If the number of phases is reduced, a much higher volume of forces is required at one time," he further said. The draft roll in Bengal removed 5.82 million names, or 7.6% of the total electors of the state. The final electoral list will be published on February 28 and the term of the assembly runs out on May 7. In Tamil Nadu, the process is expected to wind up by February 17. The draft roll excised around 9.7 million names, roughly 15% of the electorate. The term of the assembly runs out on May 10. In 2021, the state voted in a single phase. "The election timeline is directly contingent upon the finalisation of the electoral roll.the legally mandated period for disposal of objections and internal assessments cannot be curtailed," said an official in the state CEO's office....