The Election Commission has found 58.08 lakh dead, absent, shifted and fictitious voters in Bengal till 9pm on Thursday, the last day of the enumeration process for the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the state.
These names are to be deleted from the draft electoral rolls that will be published on December 16.
Sources said that of the 58.08 lakh forms that have been returned blank to the EC, 24.18 lakh had been issued for voters now marked dead, and 12.01 lakh for voters absent from their stated addresses.
Around 19.93 lakh have been found registered as voters in multiple places and 1.37 lakh have been identified as fictitious, the sources said.
In addition to these, 57,000-odd voters have been kept in the “others” category. The sources said that voters whose forms could not be delivered or did not return to the BLOs for unknown reasons had been kept in this category.
“These voters, too, will be deleted from the draft list. If anyone failed to fill out their form for any reason, they can appeal before the electoral registration officers between December 16 and January 15,” an official said.
So far, around 30 lakh voters have been identified as having no links with the 2002 rolls, with neither themselves nor their parents or grandparents listed in them. They will be called for hearing and verification.
A total of 2.93 crore voters have filled in their enumeration forms saying their names were on the 2002 rolls. Around 3.84 lakh who did not figure in the 2002 rolls have linked themselves via their parents or grandparents.
Sources said that although enumeration forms would continue to be uploaded till Thursday midnight, the final figures were unlikely to see any major changes.
Extension again
The Election Commission has again extended the enumeration period for the special intensive revision, providing the relief even to states where it claims the digitisation has been completed, but leaving out Bengal.
The five states and one Union Territory where the drive was on Thursday extended for a second time are Tamil Nadu and Gujarat (till December 14), Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Andaman and Nicobar Islands (December 18) and Uttar Pradesh (December 26).
The date for publishing the draft rolls in these places is five days after the last date for enumeration.
In Bengal, the enumeration process got over on December 11, and draft rolls are scheduled for publication on December 16.
Except for Uttar Pradesh, the six places where the period has been extended were shown to have had 100 per cent of their enumeration forms digitised by 3pm on Thursday.
The digitisation figure for Uttar Pradesh is 99.61 per cent and that for Bengal is99.96 per cent.
“The 100 per cent included those marked absent, shifted, dead or duplicate. We have shared their names on our website and we feel that some of them can still be traced,” the chief electoral officer of one of the 100-per-cent digitisation states toldThe Telegraph.
“There are others whose forms have been digitised but have not been mapped (linked to the previous SIR). We are making efforts to map these people as well so that they won’t need furtherdocumentation.”
Another such CEO told this newspaper: “There are logical errors such as the repetition of names and so on which need verification, which is why we sought time.”
The poll panel has not responded to the question why the extension has been granted to some places where, according to its own daily bulletin, enumeration has been completed.
On Thursday, a statement from the commission said: “Based on the requests received from the Chief Electoral Officers (CEOs) of 6 States/UT, Election Commission of India has revised the schedule for the ongoing Special Intensive Revision.…
“Enumeration period for Goa, Puducherry, Lakshadweep, Rajasthan and West Bengal will end today, i.e. 11.12.2025.”
The SIR, which is for the first time ever seeking documentary proof of citizenship, is under way in nine states and three Union Territories, after having been carried out in Bihar earlier this year.
On November 30, days before the expiry of the then enumeration deadline of December 4, the poll panel had extended the period by a week.
That decision came after suicides and deaths among several overburdened booth-level officers, and protests from government officials and Opposition parties. After a nudge from the Supreme Court, the drive was extended by another week in Kerala where local body polls are scheduled this week.
While Bengal has not received a further extension of the enumeration period, the poll panel on Wednesday extended the state’s deadline for the rationalisation and rearrangement of polling stations from December 11 to February 7 next year.
This was done as Bengal’s district election officers have not yet submitted their proposals for the establishment of polling booths in apartment complexes and other group housing areas as well as slums, as directed by the poll panel.