After initially claiming that over 2,208 booths in West Bengal returned 100 per cent SIR enumeration forms, the Election Commission on Tuesday revised down the number to just 480.
The Election Commission has ordered a “strict scrutiny” of booths where all enumeration forms, or only 1 to 10 forms each, were returned filled. “This implies that the number of deceased, absent, or shifted voters reported from these booths is either nil or negligible,” an EC official said.
“Wherever questions are raised, we will scrutinise the detailed information provided in the forms. It should be noted that if anyone provides false information, it is a punishable offence. So, under any circumstance, we cannot be reluctant. We also told EROs that even if an individual’s name is on the 2002 list, but the information provided raises questions, that person can also be called for a hearing,” an EC official said.
“Once we sought reports from the officials of districts on Monday and asked them to double-check about the number of any dead, duplicate, or untraceable voters, we received this revised figure on Tuesday noon,” the official said, pointing to the drop in the number of such booths.
The highest number of such booths is in South 24 Parganas district, with 159 booths, PTI quoted an unnamed official and added that he didn’t specify the figures for other districts.
He said 66 booths in the Raidighi area returned all duly filled forms, followed by 58 in Kulpi, 20 in Patharpratima, and 15 in Magrahat.
“The DEOs had sent the earlier dispatch as per initial assessment, but once the CEO’s office asked for re-evaluating the figure based on all parameters, the number had lessened by 1,728. We have asked for a report about the role of data entry operators of the districts, particularly South 24 Parganas, to analyse the reason behind the disparity,” the official said.
State Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Manoj Agarwal had on Monday issued orders to all DEOs, EROs, AEROs and BLOs, stating that the data of dead persons would be available from Janma Mrityu Tathya/Registrar General of Births and Deaths, and cancellation of ration cards on death.
“EROs should verify the entries, if any, made by BLOs for all such cases in the constituency,” the order stated.
Meanwhile, booths that returned very few enumeration forms are also under the EC scanner.
According to sources, 542 booths returned only one enumeration form. In 420 booths, only two forms were returned. Another 4,764 booths returned between three and 10 forms.
The CEO’s order had noted the possibility of “errors in EF entry in the BLO app”. The rollback option for corrections has been opened, and EROs, AEROs, and BLOs have been asked to use this window to correct any suspected incorrect entries.
An official said the revised figure is final for the ongoing enumeration exercise till December 2, pending completion of work by several BLOs.
Meanwhile, the EC said 7,65,75,328 forms were distributed till Tuesday evening, the 28th day of the SIR, launched on November 4, covering 99.92 per cent of the total electorate.
A total of 7,45,99,892 enumeration forms were digitally uploaded to date, representing 97.34 per cent of the total forms distributed and collected by BLOs.
The EC also announced that the distribution of enumeration forms will continue till December 11 instead of December 4, the draft electoral rolls will now be published on December 16 instead of December 9, and the final voters’ list will be released on February 14, 2026, in place of February 7.
With PTI