Bengal downs 24.18 L voters: D

Political

Bengal downs 24.18 L voters: Draft list on Tuesday

As many as around 30 lakh voters, the SIR revealed don't have a traceable history in the 2002 rolls, either individually or through family members.

"The entire voters falling in this group will be summoned for hearings, and even those in the first two categories may be called if any discrepancy is detected in their records," said the state Election Commission today.

The Special Intensive Revision process, which began on November 4 across 12 states and union territories, saw its deadline extended for seven states on last Thursday, with Uttar Pradesh receiving the longest extension.

However, West Bengal’s schedule remained unchanged, and the state completed the enumeration as per the original timeline yesterday evening.

As per EC norms, any voter who remains untraceable despite repeated field visits is categorised as “missing” and marked for deletion pending further verification.

The enumeration has also identified a substantial number of voters who have either shifted residence or whose names appeared in multiple rolls.

A total of 19,93,087 voters have been listed under this category, and their names are being retained only at their correct addresses, with duplicate or outdated entries earmarked for removal.

According to EC sources, the state has recorded 24,18,699 deceased voters, whose names will be removed from the rolls.

The Commission has further flagged 1,37,575 voters as bogus, meaning they do not qualify to remain on the rolls, and another 57,509 voters have been placed under the “other” category, all of whom will be excluded from the draft list.

Officials said the magnitude of these deletions reflects the EC’s attempt to clean the rolls thoroughly ahead of the publication of the updated draft.

The draft electoral roll for West Bengal will be released on December 16, after which voters may raise objections, report errors, or submit missing information.

The Commission will hold hearings based on these complaints and verify documents before finalising the voter list.

The final electoral roll is scheduled for publication on February 14, 2026, following a detailed scrutiny of each category of voters.