Kolkata, 19 December (H.S.) :

Data emerging from the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the voters’ list in West Bengal has raised serious questions about the electoral revision process, as applications for new voter registration are significantly lower than the number of names deleted from the previous list.

According to sources in the office of the Chief Electoral Officer, a total of 324,800 applications have been received in the first phase for inclusion of new voters. In contrast, as many as 5,820,899 names have been removed from the voters’ list published in October 2025. The wide gap between the two figures has drawn attention within official circles.

Sources further pointed out that the number of new registration applications is also negligible when compared to the 3,059,273 “unmapped voters” whose details could not be linked to the 2002 voters’ list. The year 2002 marked the last instance of a Special Intensive Revision in the state. These voters could not be connected either through self-mapping or through parent-child mapping during the current exercise.

Officials said that applications submitted through Form-6 include individuals who have completed 18 years of age and are registering as first-time voters, as well as those seeking a change in their electoral constituency. However, officers in the Chief Electoral Officer’s office maintained that the number of applications may increase in the coming days, as sufficient time remains for the submission of Form-6.

The final voters’ list is scheduled to be published on February 14. With this, the Special Intensive Revision process, which began on November 4, will formally conclude. Following the publication of the final roll, the Election Commission is expected to announce the dates for the crucial Assembly elections in the state.

Meanwhile, the Election Commission has clarified that inclusion of a name in the draft voters’ list—whether through self-mapping or parent-child mapping—does not guarantee its retention in the final list. During the revision exercise, the Commission has identified suspicious and anomalous family-related data in as many as 16 million voter records.

In these cases, voters will be called for hearings and asked to explain the discrepancies found in their family details. The irregularities include records where a voter’s father and mother have been listed as the same person, instances of individuals shown as becoming fathers at the age of 15 or younger, voters recorded as becoming grandfathers at the age of 40 or below, and even a case in which a person has been listed as the father of two sons at the age of five.

Hindusthan Samachar / Satya Prakash Singh