Bengal SIR: Re-verification adds eight lakh more voters to excludable list

Kolkata, Dec 15: The Election Commission of India (ECI)’s decision for re-verification of data provided in the duly-filled enumeration forms collected by the booth-level officers (BLOs) during the first stage of the three-level ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in West Bengal has led to the detection of around eight lakh additional excludable voters within just seven days from December 3 to December 11.

The re-verification of data in the enumeration forms began on December 3 and continued until December 11, which was also the last day for submitting and digitising the enumeration forms.

The total number of identified excludable voters as of December 3 was around 50.22 lakh, which sharply increased to 58.08 lakh on December 11, insiders from the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) said.

The number of deceased voters as of December 3 was around 23 lakh, which increased to around 24.18 lakh on December 11.

The number of shifted voters, that is, voters who have permanently shifted to another place, was around 17 lakh on December 3. The same number increased to around 20 lakh as of December 11.

The number of untraceable voters was around eight lakh on December 3, which increased to around 12 lakh on December 11.

The only marginal decline was witnessed in the combined number of duplicate voters, that is, the voters having names in two places, as well as voters deemed to be excludable for other reasons. The figure was 1.50 lakh as on December 3, which declined marginally to 1.37 lakh as on December 11.

The first stage of the three-stage SIR, which started from November 4, will end on December 16, with the publication of the draft voters’ list.

Thereafter, will start the second stage that involves filing claims and objections, and the notice phase -- which is issuance, hearing, verification, and decision on enumeration forms and disposal of claims and objections -- to be done concurrently by the Electoral Registration Officers (EROs).

A total of 10 EROs will be handling hearings on claims and objections for each of the 294 Assembly constituencies in the state.

The final voters’ list will be published on February 14, 2026. Shortly after that, the ECI will announce the dates for the Assembly elections in the state.

--IANS