ECI flags 30 booths for major voter data mismatches
The Statesman | 5 December 2025
The Election Commission of India has primarily identified 30 booths across 30 Assembly constituencies where widespread discrepancies in parental information have been detected in the 2025 electoral rolls, prompting an urgent order for progeny mapping at all polling booths.
The anomalies involve voters absent from the 2002 rolls but linked to parents, whose names do not match the 2025 entries. The scale of errors potentially affecting up to 30 lakh voters has pushed the poll panel to deploy booth-level officers (BLOs) for immediate verification, with reports due within seven days. The irregularities came to light after the IT team at Nirvachan Sadan analysed enumeration forms uploaded for Bengal’s 7.66 crore voters.
The team alerted state Chief Electoral Officer Manoj Agarwal, whose office conducted sample checks and confirmed that mismatches were not isolated but widespread. This triggered instructions for booth-wise progeny mapping across the state to ensure error-free rolls ahead of the Assembly elections.
According to EC sources, all 30 detected booths fall in 30 separate Assembly constituencies, with the highest concentration of anomalies reported from South 24-Parganas. In Sandeshkhali part 168, for instance, 1,267 of the 1,447 electors have linked themselves to parents from the 2002 rolls despite contradictory parental names in the 2025 entries. Joynagar’s part 6 shows a similar trend, with 1,199 of 1,278 voters falling into this category, while in Kultali’s part 85, mismatches have been detected in 1,002 of 1,154 entries.
Comparable patterns have emerged in other districts as well. At a booth in Hingalganj in North 24-Parganas, 705 of 779 voters have reflected inconsistent parental data, and in Hemtabad in North Dinajpur, 977 of 1,119 voters show the same kind of contradiction. Additional irregularities of this nature have also been reported in Dhupguri, Dabgram–Phulbari, Dinhata, Murarai, Habibpur and several other constituencies.
“Some mistakes may be unintentional, many appear deliberate attempts by voters to avoid scrutiny during the special intensive revision (SIR) by falsely linking themselves to voters from the 2002 rolls,” an election commission official said. From a layman’s parlance, progeny mapping is a verification process requiring voters listed in the 2025 rolls to establish legitimate parental links with voters from the 2002 rolls.
Under EC instructions, BLOs must visit each affected household to check why individuals have linked themselves to parents whose recorded names do not match existing data. If mismatches continue into the draft rolls, those voters will be called for hearings to justify the discrepancies. The EC clarified that only voters who appeared in the 2002 rolls and their children are exempt from submitting documents or attending hearings during the SIR process. This exemption has led some voters to falsely claim such links to bypass verification.
According to EC’s standard operating procedure (SOP) voters who have mapped themselves to parents despite being 60 years or older in 2002, and voters who are now aged 50 or above but whose names did not appear in the 2002 rolls should be cross verified. The BLOs should also look into instances where the age gap between a voter and their parents is either unusually narrow—less than 18 years – or excessively wide, exceeding 45 years.
Another category flagged for verification involves situations where a family member signed on behalf of a voter who was absent during the enumeration process. Officials have also been told to prioritise booths marked “sensitive” in the 2021 and 2024 elections, booths with more than 50 per cent progeny-mapped voters, and those with fewer than 20 uncollectable forms.
While 30 booths have been flagged so far, officials suspect many more may be affected. With Assembly polls approaching, the EC has intensified efforts to eliminate data manipulation and ensure a transparent and legally robust electoral roll.