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Bengal Voter List Shake-Up: Why 53 Lakh Names Face Exclusion

West Bengal's voter list is undergoing a massive clean-up. The Special Intensive Revision has identified nearly 53 lakh names for exclusion, with the majority being deceased or having moved. The process has been remarkably thorough, slashing the number of seemingly perfect booths from over 2,200 to just seven. Election officials have warned of strict action against any deliberate errors in the data upload.

Key Points: West Bengal SIR Voter List 53 Lakh Exclusion Digitisation Complete

  • Nearly 99% digitisation of voter enumeration forms is now complete in West Bengal
  • Around 53 lakh voters identified for exclusion from the current electoral list
  • Of these, over 23 lakh are deceased and 18 lakh have shifted residence
  • The number of 'clean' booths with no excludable voters has plummeted to just seven
3 min read

Bengal SIR: 99 pc digitisation of enumeration forms completed; nearly 53 lakh to be excluded

Nearly 53 lakh voters set for exclusion in Bengal's electoral roll revision. Breakdown reveals 23 lakh deceased, 18 lakh shifted, and 9 lakh untraceable voters.

"The rest 31,801 are found excludable for various other reasons. - Insider from CEO’s office"

Kolkata, Dec 5

With almost 99 per cent of digitisation of enumeration forms collected from the voters by the booth-level officers (BLOs) during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in West Bengal being already completed, the number of voters enlisted in the current voters’ list found to be suitable for exclusion stands at around 53 lakh.

Till Thursday evening, 98.84 per cent of the duly filled enumeration forms collected from the voters had already been completed, and as per the trend of the digitisation of those forms, the number of voters in the existing voters’ list found eligible for exclusion till that period is 52,99,663.

According to sources in the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), West Bengal, of the 52,99,663 identified excludable voters till Thursday evening, 23,48,095 are deceased voters.

The number of shifted voters, who have shifted from one particular place to another place stands at 18,55,302.

The number of untraceable voters as of Thursday evening stands at 9,42,162. As of the same period, the number of duplicate voters, that is, voters who have names enrolled at voters' lists in two places, stands at 1,22,303.

“The rest 31,801 are found excludable for various other reasons,” an insider from the CEO’s office said.

The number of booths in West Bengal identified as not having a single deceased voter, or a duplicate voter with names in two places, or any voter who has shifted elsewhere, has undergone a drastic revision and dropped to just seven as of Thursday.

This marks a steep fall from the abysmal figure of 2,208 reported on Monday evening, which subsequently declined first to 480 on Tuesday evening and again to just 29 on Wednesday evening.

Of the seven election booths that are still shown as not having a single deceased voter, or a duplicate voter with names in two places, or any voter who has shifted elsewhere, include two in Malda district and one each in Jalpaiguri, South 24 Parganas, Howrah, West Midnapore, and Purulia districts.

In the first data released on Monday evening, which showed the number of such booths at 2,208, South 24 Parganas topped the list, with 760.

Now, as on Thursday evening, that number has come down to just one. The statistics changed daily from Tuesday evening after the Election Commission of India (ECI) continued putting pressure on the District Magistrates, as well as the District Electoral Officers, for fresh reviews of such booths.

On Thursday, ECI, through the CEO’s office, has cautioned BLOs engaged in the ongoing SIR exercise of strong disciplinary action if any “deliberate” errors in uploading voters’ data come to its notice.

The CEO’s office reminded BLOs that since they are currently on deputation to the ECI for the SIR exercise, the commission has full authority to take disciplinary action against them in cases of deliberate or negligent errors.

- IANS

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Reader Comments

R
Rohit P
The pressure from ECI clearly worked. Booths without any errors dropped from 2208 to just 7 in a few days? That's a huge improvement. Hope this leads to more transparency.
A
Arjun K
Nearly 23.5 lakh deceased voters still on the list is shocking. Where was the regular updation all these years? This revision was long overdue for Bengal.
S
Sarah B
While digitisation is impressive, I hope genuine voters aren't excluded by mistake. The BLOs have a huge responsibility. The threat of disciplinary action seems necessary to ensure accuracy.
V
Vikram M
The number of duplicate voters (1.22 lakh) and untraceable voters (9.4 lakh) is also very high. This process should be continuous, not just a special drive before elections. EC should make this a yearly exercise.
K
Karthik V
Respectfully, the initial data shows a serious lapse at the ground level. How could over 2000 booths report zero errors? It seems the system only works when there is top-down pressure, which isn't sustainable. We need better accountability built into the process itself.
M
Meera T
Good step. A clean electoral roll strengthens democracy. Now, the focus should be on including all new eligible voters, especially

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