ECI flags 2,208 booths with ‘zero deaths’, seeks urgent reports
The Statesman | 3 December 2025
The Election Commission of India (ECI) has placed 2,208 polling booths in West Bengal under heightened scrutiny after discovering that each of them recorded 100 per cent distribution, collection, and digitisation of Special Intensive Revision (SIR) forms with not a single ‘uncollectable’ form reported.
The Commission has sought signed reports from EROs, countersigned by DEOs, by 10 a.m. on Tuesday. The alert was triggered as the digitisation of enumeration forms entered its final stretch on Monday.
The ECI officials identified 7,844 polling booths where digitisation was completed with between zero and 10 uncollectable forms.
According to a senior official, the most startling cluster is the set of 2,208 booths that reported zero uncollectable entries. This implies that, in these booths, every voter was accounted for with no deaths, no duplicates, no permanently shifted electors, and no untraceable voters reflected in the forms.
“It is highly unusual for such a large number of booths to return flawless data. After 100 per cent digitisation, these 2,208 booths showed not a single uncollectable form. The ECI has asked for detailed reports by Tuesday morning,” the official noted.
For the remaining 5,636 booths, the count of uncollectable forms ranges from 1 to 10, and DEOs have been instructed to reverify the entire SIR process and forward their findings to the CEO, West Bengal, before the report is sent to Nirvachan Sadan. These booths were flagged through the EC’s backend monitoring system, which tracks real-time uploads of enumeration data.
Among the booths with zero uncollectable forms, South 24-Parganas tops the list with 760 booths, followed by Purulia (228), Murshidabad (226), Malda (216), Nadia (130) and Bankura (101).
The numbers are 94 in Howrah, 82 in North 24-Parganas, 54 in Hooghly, and 1 in Kolkata North, while Kolkata South has none.
Data also shows 542 booths with just one uncollectable form, 420 booths with two, 372 with three, 374 with four, and 481 with five. The anomalies come against the backdrop of multiple irregularities surfacing since the SIR began on 4 November.
With digitisation nearing completion in many districts, the CEO’s office was struck by what officials described as “alarming patterns” especially booths where no deaths, no shifts, and no duplicate entries were recorded across an entire year.
Election officials have now sought detailed clarifications from District Magistrates, with reports expected within 48 hours. Many within the poll machinery have questioned how in a full year not a single death or address shift could occur in these 2,208 booths.
District-wise data shared by EC sources shows striking concentrations of such booths across southern and western Bengal, raising fresh questions about the integrity of field-level enumeration.
Adding to the churn, the EC on Sunday extended multiple SIR deadlines. The timeline for uploading enumeration forms has been pushed from 4 December to 11 December, while the draft electoral roll will now be published on 16 December, instead of 8 December.
The final roll, originally due on 7 February, will be released on 14 February. The commission is expected to scrutinise the upcoming district reports closely before deciding on further corrective steps.