ECI to DEOs: Complete mapping of electoral rolls by today
The Statesman | 16 October 2025The ECI has also directed the DEOs to upload the mapping of electoral rolls of 2025 and 2002 on the commission’s official website by this week. The SIR last held in the state was in 2002.
The CEO’s office held a review meeting today to discuss progress of the mapping of electoral rolls and found that several districts could not complete the process.
Sources felt that the commission may announce the date of SIR in the state next week after information in connection with the mapping process is uploaded in the website. Differences between voters’ lists of 2002 and 2025 would be cleared after competition of mapping and matching of electoral rolls across the state, sources also felt.
Opposition BJP leaders have been claiming that names of around one crore voters would be deleted from the electoral rolls after the SIR.
The ruling Trinamul Congress has been vehemently opposing the SIR, calling it a “backdoor NRC” attempt and a ploy of the “compromised” ECI to delete voters unlikely to vote for the BJP.
The commission had earlier directed the DEOs to complete the mapping and matching process by Wednesday before the announcement of SIR of the electoral rolls is made by it probably next week.
The commission on the other hand is likely to lay additional stress on identifying dead voters in the existing electoral rolls in the state SIR of the electoral rolls ahead of the 2026 Assembly polls scheduled during April-May.
While mapping of electoral rolls of 2025 and 2002, the poll panel has found that nearly 35 per cent of voters who figured in the 2002 electoral rolls were dead.
According to sources, nearly 1.5 crore voters out of 4.58 crore voters figured in the 2002 post SIR rolls were found to be dead. The figure was revealed during the mapping of 2002 and 2025 electoral rolls as per a pre-SIR activity.
Sources in the poll panel said that it was yet to be ascertained how many of the dead voters still figure in the existing electoral rolls.
The number of voters were 4.58 crore in the 2002 electoral rolls in Bengal. It has shot up to 7.62 crore in 2025.
The commission was prompted to intensify the mapping of electoral rolls in the state after it deleted 8,000 names from the electoral rolls of Kaliganj Assembly segment in Nadia in April this year following a special summary revision. The majority of the deleted voters were dead.
