The Election Commission has identified an “abnormal” 66 per cent growth in the number of Bengal’s voters in 22 years following the last “special intensive revision” of the state’s electoral rolls in 2002, poll panel sources said on Monday.
They suggested this could lead the commission to consider another special intensive revision (SIR) in Bengal before next year’s Assembly elections, which would “definitely bring down the number of voters”.
The development comes at a time the Supreme Court is set to hear challenges to an SIR announced in poll-bound Bihar that the petitioners say could disenfranchise 3 crore voters, particularly from the marginalised communities.
Poll panel sources, though, said the likely reason for the increase in Bengal was a failure to delete the names of dead and shifted voters, and gave the assurance that an SIR would not cause any genuine voter’s name to be deleted.
Bengal had 4.58 crore voters at the end of the SIR in 2002, and 7.60 crore in 2024, the sources said.
“A logical growth in the number of voters could have led to a 48 to 50 per cent increase during this period,” a commission official said.
“As the growth seems an abnormal one, the ECI (poll panel) would definitely lay stress on carrying out a special intensive revision of the voters’ list in the state ahead of the 2026 Assembly polls,” he added.
“The intensive revision would definitely bring down the number of voters in Bengal. In 2002, a total of 28 lakh voters were deleted from the electoral rolls following an intensive revision.”
A retired bureaucrat who had worked with the commission for a few years said the increase in voters during the Left Front’s rule appeared to have been “within the limit considered logical” by thepoll panel.
“Between 2002 and 2011, the number of voters increased by 1.03 crore. But between 2011 and 2024, it rose by 1.99 crore,” he said. “The second period is when the Trinamool has been in power.”
Poll panel sources blamed the “abnormal” rise in voters primarily on a lack of initiative among booth-level officers (BLOs) to delete the names of the dead and those who had shifted their location.
During a special summary revision of the electoral rolls (a routine exercise) in the Kaliganj Assembly seat in Nadia, where a by-election was held in June, about 8,000 names were deleted from the electoral rolls. Officials suspect that Kaliganj is not aone-off.
“During the special summary revision in Kaliganj, no genuine voter was deleted from the voters’ list. This was evident as no political party lodged any complaint,” a poll panel official said.
“During the special intensive revision, too, no valid voter will be removed from the voters’ list.”
The Election Commission has already indicated that it would not tolerate any lackadaisical approach from the booth-level officers during the revision of electoral rolls ahead of the Assembly polls scheduled next year. (There will be a routinerevision, anyway.)
“The commission has asked the district election officers to appoint BLOs who are state government employees from theGroup C category and above,” a source said.
“This has been done to ensure BLO accountability in cleaning up the electoral rolls during the rolls revision.”
Objections
If the poll panel decides on an SIR in Bengal ahead of next year’s Assembly polls, it could run into a challenge, as it has in Bihar.
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee has already castigated the Bihar exercise -– which is seeking proof of citizenship while discounting Aadhaar, PAN and ration cards -- saying it’s worse than a National Register of Citizens update.
During a news conference in Digha on June 26, Mamata suggested that the Bihar SIR could be a decoy, and that the “actual target” couldbe Bengal.
The BJP said the voter increase figures in Bengal suggested that “Bangladeshi and Rohingya infiltrators” had been included on the rolls. It demandedan SIR.
“In the past two-three years, Assembly constituencies bordering Bangladesh recorded a 16 to 18 per cent increase in voters,” state BJP general secretary Jagannath Chattopadhyay said.
“For example, Assembly segments in the Rajarhat-Gopalpur area, Bongaon, Barasat and Nadia registered a more than 16 per cent growth in voters in the pastthree-four years.”
He said a “proper” SIR would identify about 1 crore “infiltrators” on thevoters’ list.
Trinamool hit out at what it saw as a ploy to carry out an SIR in Bengal.
“Every time an election approaches, various kinds of hyperactivity happens on the part of the EC,” party Rajya Sabha member Ritabrata Banerjee said.
“These are part of the BJP’s targeting of the Opposition... because its Ashwamedh stallion keeps getting stopped by Mamata Banerjeein Bengal.”
The CPM expressed suspicion about the figures.
“If the EC were serious about the so-called abnormal growth of voters in Bengal, it should have called an all-party meeting,” party leader Sujan Chakraborty said.
“But it did not do so…. How can we be sure that the figures being quoted are genuine?”