The Election Commission of India has identified several fictitious names that were included in the electoral rolls of two Assembly segments — Moyna in East Midnapore and Baruipur (East) in South 24-Parganas — during a sample checking of the new voters enrolled in the past two months.
The findings assume significance as they could strengthen the case of the EC to conduct a special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bengal ahead of the 2026 Assembly polls. It also holds significance as nearly 70,000 Form 6 applications — through which new voters apply to get their names included in the electoral rolls — were received by the poll panel over the past two weeks.
The exercise of sample checking, EC sources said, was initiated after it received more than 70,000 applications for enrollment as voters, mainly from seven bordering districts, in the past two weeks or so. During the sample checking, the EC decided to pick some of the newly included voters to check their eligibility.
"The findings were surprising. A total of 87 newly added voters in Moyna and 38 of the recently included electors in Baruipur (East) were found to be fictitious. It was also found that there were severe lapses on the part of the assistant election registration officers (AERO) of the Assembly segments,” said a source on the poll panel.
Sources also said that details of about 600 new voters — who were included in the past two months in the two Assembly segments — were checked during the sample survey. It was found that many names were added to the electoral rolls based on a single document. Moreover, there were forged documents that were used to add the names to the list.
It was also found that most of the fictitious names were added to the list without carrying out field verification.
While the poll panel officials were tight-lipped about the number of voters added to the electoral rolls of these Assembly segments, they said that the AEROs of the two segments were called to the office of the chief electoral officer of Bengal in Calcutta on Monday.
“They were asked to explain why so many fictitious voters were added to the list. The officials admitted that there were lapses on their part but blamed data entry operators for the mistake. They promised that they would delete the names from the list immediately,” said an official.
The office of the CEO, Bengal, has forwarded all the findings to the Nirvachan Sadan in Delhi and sought directions on what steps could be initiated against the AEROs.
A senior government official said that the matter could be termed critical, as so many fictitious voters were identified even before a thorough revision of electoral rolls was initiated.
Sources on the poll panel said that it would continue to undertake sample checking of newly included voters in some other Assembly segments too.
“If it is found that fictitious names were included in the voters' list of the areas, it would be clear that an effort is on to include fictitious names in the list across the state. In that case, the poll panel might initiate stern measures to ensure that the booth-level officers, AEROs and EROs follow the process before inserting names into the electoral rolls,” said a source.