West Bengal: ECI releases final list; 63 lakh voters deleted

The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Saturday published West Bengal’s post-Special Intensive Revision (SIR) electoral rolls, showing that over 63.66 lakh names, nearly 8.3 per cent of the electorate, have been deleted in the final list since the exercise began in November last year. Another 60.06 lakh names remain ‘under adjudication’ amid a sweeping churn of the voter list ahead of the Assembly polls due in April. As per the ECI’s data, 1,82,036 voters were added under Form 6, and 6A and 6,671 voters were added to the list under Form 8.

After the second phase of SIR, West Bengal now has 7,04,59,284 voters. The final voter list includes 3,60,22,642 male voters, 3,44,35,260 female voters and 1,382 voters of the third gender. Before the SIR exercise, the state had 7,66,37,529). According to EC,  60,06,675 voters are under adjudication in the State. Before the SIR exercise, the state had 7,66,37,529. The gender ratio is 956.

The draft rolls, published on December 16, had already pared down the electorate from 7.66 crore to 7.08 crore, deleting over 58 lakh names on grounds of death, migration, duplication and untraceability. Following hearings, scrutiny and disposal of claims and objections, another 5,46,053 deletions were recorded through Form-7 applications, taking the total SIR-linked omissions to around 63.66 lakh. More than 1.82 lakh electors were added through Form-6 and Form-6A submissions, partially offsetting the deletions.

Officials said the figures could still witness marginal changes as fresh inclusions and objections continue to be processed.

Significantly, around 60.06 lakh voters have been placed in the “under adjudication” category, largely due to what officials described as “logical discrepancies” in their enumeration forms. These names have been retained in the rolls pending adjudication. Over 58 lakh enumeration forms were not received during the exercise, including cases involving deceased, shifted and duplicate electors, officials said. Of the 7.08 crore names that appeared in the draft rolls, around 6.4 crore have been marked as “approved” so far.

Meanwhile, voters in Bengal were left high and dry for most parts of the day, unable to access their electoral status on the website of the EC and its mobile application following the publication of post-SIR electoral rolls on Saturday, on account of the portal remaining dormant on “technical” grounds. Although online data on the EC-designated websites could not be accessed since the morning, officials said they realised the problem after users reported them to be “down” and inaccessible at around 1 pm.

The poll panel has started publishing the electoral rolls in phases, which marked the culmination of a 116-day statewide exercise that began on November 4 last year. The EC’s voter services portal and the state CEO’s website were both unresponsive, triggering confusion among voters attempting to check their names on the list.

The poll body maintained that the SIR — the first intensive statewide revision since 2002 — was a statutory clean-up exercise aimed at ensuring a “pure and error-free” roll ahead of a major election. Beyond aggregate figures, district and constituency-level data underline the scale of the shake-up.

In Bhabanipur constituency, represented by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, 47,094 names have been struck off — 44,786 at the draft stage and another 2,324 in the final publication — while over 14,000 electors have been kept under adjudication. The total deletions in the constituency are roughly 11,000 fewer than Banerjee’s victory margin of over 58,000 votes in the 2021 bypoll.

Nadia district, bordering Bangladesh and often central to debates over migration and citizenship, witnessed around 2.73 lakh deletions. The electorate declined from 44.18 lakh at the start of the SIR to 41.45 lakh in the final rolls.

Bankura saw a net reduction of about 1.18 lakh names. From 30,33,830 voters in November, the draft rolls showed 29,01,009. After further scrutiny, the final figure stands at around 29.15 lakh. North Kolkata, comprising seven assembly constituencies currently held by the TMC, recorded around 4.07 lakh deletions during the SIR, including 3.9 lakh at the draft stage and another 17,000 in the final list. Alipurduar registered 1,02,835 deletions, with 11,96,651 names featuring in the final rolls.

In Hooghly, the electorate dipped from 47,75,099 at the beginning of the process to 44,40,293 now, reflecting a total deletion of 3,34,806 names, while 1,73,064 voters remain under adjudication. The draft rolls had pegged the district’s electorate at 44,56,224.

Meanwhile, the TMC alleged that “harassment in the name of SIR” had reached extreme levels and warned of political and legal agitation if valid voters were struck off. The party accused the BJP of attempting to secure electoral gains through deletions, a charge the saffron camp rejected. The BJP maintained that parties must contest elections based on the finalised rolls, and political outfits should not question a statutory revision exercise.