The first phase of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in West Bengal has exposed widespread inconsistencies, particularly in identifying new voters based on parentage and family mapping from the 2002 rolls, prompting the Election Commission to order a detailed verification of enumeration forms and making a list of voters to be called for hearing, sources said on Friday.
According to ECI data, a total of 58,08,232 enumeration forms were not uploaded on the Block Level Officer (BLO) application. Out of these, there are 24,18,699 deceased voters, 12,01,462 untraceable voters, 19,93,087 permanently shifted voters, 1,37,475 voters enrolled at multiple places, and 57,509 others.
“Names of fathers are incorrect or mismatched in 85,01,486 cases, accounting for 11.09 per cent of the total voters. Also, 24,21,133 voters are listed as having more than six children, and inconsistencies have been observed in age differences related to parents,” a senior ECI official said.
“In around 13 lakh cases, the age gap between a voter and their parents is less than 15 years, while in 8,77,736 cases, it exceeds 50 years, which is considered unrealistic. Discrepancies were also seen in extended family relationships, with 3,29,152 cases showing an age difference of less than 40 years with grandparents,” the official said.
“Additionally, 20,74,256 voters over the age of 45 years have enlisted their names in the roll for the first time. Errors have also been detected in gender data, with 13,46,918 entries recorded incorrectly, raising concerns about voter identification accuracy,” the official added. “All these electoral details will be either surveyed or analysed further, and a final decision will be taken on whether they will be called for hearing. We have already started our analysis,” the official said.
According to the 2025 electoral roll of West Bengal, there are 7.66 crore voters. Out of these, 58 lakh forms were uncollected and around 30 lakh voters have no mapping; 2.93 crore electors have self-mapping and 3.84 crore have progeny-mapping.