Bengal: Booths with zero dead, duplicate voters drop by 80% after ECI’s rap

The number of such booths dropped from 2,208 on Monday to 480 on Tuesday, after the Election Commission sought reports from district electoral officers

Kolkata: The number of booths in West Bengal where there are no dead, duplicate and untraceable voters, dropped by around 80% within a span of 24 hours, after the Election Commission of India (ECI) sought reports from district electoral officers (DEOs).

Booth level officers (BLO) and assistant workers check and collect the enumeration forms as residents queue up to submit the forms for the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bengal’s Siliguri. (ANI)

A senior official of the poll panel said that the number of such polling booths with zero uncollectible enumeration forms – booths where there are no dead, duplicate and untraceable voters - was 2,208 on Monday.

“According to the reports sent to the ECI by DEOs from various districts across the state the number of such booths dropped from 2,208 on Monday to 480 on Tuesday,” said a poll panel official in Kolkata.

The CEO had directed all the DEOs to thoroughly scrutinise the polling stations where less than 20 dead, duplicate, untraceable and fake voters have been found. There were more than 7,800 such booths where the number of dead, fake, duplicate and untraceable voters was 10 and less.

“The highest number of such polling booths were found in South 24 Parganas (760), Purulia (228), Murshidabad (226), Malda (216) and Nadia (130),” said a second official.

There are at least 80,681 booths across 294 assembly seats in the state. The crucial state assembly elections are due in 2026.

“The total number of dead voters found till Tuesday stood at 22,45,861,” said an official