Bengal SIR: Over 58 lakh names excluded as new enrolments remain low

Kolkata: The number of applications for new voter enrolment in West Bengal’s draft voters’ list is negligible compared to the massive volume of names excluded from the previous roll. According to sources in the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), only 3,24,800 applications for new enrolment were received during the first stage, standing in stark contrast to the 58,20,899 voters excluded from the list as of October 2025.

The current figure of new applications, which includes both first-time voters turning 18 and those seeking constituency transfers via Form-6, is also dwarfed by the number of "unmapped" voters. Official data reveals there are 30,59,273 unmapped voters, defined as individuals with no established link to the 2002 voters' list, which serves as the benchmark for the last Special Intensive Revision (SIR) conducted in the state. These individuals have failed to establish a connection through either "self-mapping" or "progeny mapping”.

However, officials in the CEO's office noted that the number of new applicants is expected to rise, as there is still sufficient time for the submission of Form-6 before the process concludes. The final voters’ list is scheduled for publication on February 14 next year, marking the conclusion of the SIR exercise that began on November 4. The Election Commission of India (ECI) will announce the polling dates for the upcoming Assembly elections shortly thereafter.

The ECI has clarified that inclusion in the draft list does not guarantee a place in the final roll, citing the detection of "weird family-tree data" in approximately 1.60 crore cases. The Commission intends to summon many of these voters for hearings to explain these irregularities before finalizing the list.

The identified data anomalies include instances where a voter's father and mother share the exact same name, as well as biological impossibilities such as individuals recorded as becoming fathers or grandfathers at the age of 15 or 40, respectively. In one extreme instance, the data suggested a voter had become a father to two sons at the age of five.

(Inputs from IANS)