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Bengal SIR: 942k more voters may get deleted
An additional 9,42,970 voters are likely to be deleted from the final electoral roll in West Bengal
An additional 9,42,970 voters are likely to be deleted from the final electoral roll in West Bengal even as the Election Commission is re-examining the documents of another three million voters as part of the Special Intensive Revision in the state, top officials of the poll panel said on Thursday.
EC officials familiar with the matter said that the number of voters who have been found to be ineligible to be included in the final roll after verification of documents, have shot up to 4,44,970.
“While around 4,98,000 electors did not turn up for hearings, another 4,44,970 were found ineligible, taking the total number of likely deletions to around 9,42,970. This number is likely to rise further as scrutiny of documents will continue till February 21,” said a senior EC official.
To be sure, these probable deletions are in addition to the 5.8 million names already removed from the draft roll.
Meanwhile, just two days before the deadline for scrutiny and disposal of documents related to the SIR in West Bengal ends, the Election Commission has sent documents of around three million voters for re-examination.
to be noted, the documents are being re-examined by EROs and AEROs after observers and micro-observers found errors in the documents. Among the documents, some were ilegible, while some were unauthorised.
“These are related to cases where the documents were found to be illegible or unauthorized documents were uploaded. In some cases, no documents were uploaded,” said the official.
SIR was rolled out in the state on November 4, 2025 and the draft electoral roll was published on December 16, last year. Around 5.8 million names of absent, permanently shifted, dead and duplicate voters were deleted in the draft roll. Another nearly 15.2 million voters, whose names could not be mapped with the 2002 electoral roll and those with forms having logical discrepancies, were called for hearings which started from December 17. The hearing process was concluded on February 14.
“The electoral roll will be continuously updated as some voters may die and other may shift their address. If a person’s name didn’t appear in the draft roll, he may still apply after filling up Form-6. If a person’s name was there in the draft roll, but doesn’t appear in the final roll, he may appeal to the District Election Officer and then to the CEO,” said a senior official
The final electoral roll is scheduled to be published on February 8, following which the ECI is likely to announce the dates of the assembly election in West Bengal.
“If the District Election Officers seek more time for the scrutiny and disposal of documents, we would request the ECI to extend the date of publication of the final roll beyond February 28,” said Manoj Kumar Agarwal, the chief electoral officer of West Bengal.
