The Election Commission of India is likely to lay additional stress on identifying dead voters in the existing electoral rolls of Bengal during the special intensive revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls ahead of the 2026 Assembly polls.
While the mapping of electoral rolls of 2025 and 2002, the poll panel has found that nearly 35 per cent of voters who figured in the 2002 electoral rolls were dead.
According to sources, nearly 1.5 crore voters out of 4.58 crore voters figured in the 2002 post SIR rolls were found to be dead. The figure was revealed during the mapping of 2002 and 2025 electoral rolls as per a pre-SIR activity.
Sources in the poll panel said that it was yet to be ascertained how many of the dead voters still figure in the existing electoral rolls.
“But given the excessive growth in number of voters between 2002 and 2025 in the state and the lackadaisical approach of the booth level officers to delete names of dead voters in the state, the poll panel is likely to lay additional stress on identifying dead voters in the existing electoral rolls during the special intensive revision,” said a source in the poll panel.
Officials aware of the development said that the ECI had earlier identified that Bengal registered “abnormal” 66 per cent in the number of voters between 2002 and 2025. At the same time, the EC has also noticed that deletion of the names of the dead voters remained a problem in Bengal.
The number of voters were 4.58 crore in the 2002 electoral rolls in Bengal. It has shot up to 7.62 crore in 2025.
The alleged lackadaisical approach of the booth level officers of Bengal in deleting names of dead voters came to the light when the EC deleted 8,000 names from the electoral rolls of Kaliganj Assembly segment in Nadia in April this year following a special summary revision. The majority of the deleted voters were dead.
“Similarly, when the EC forwarded names of 13,000 voters aged more than 100 years and asked the Bengal CEO’s office to check their status, it was found that more than 50 per cent were dead but they still figure in the electoral rolls. Some had died some 10-12 years ago,” said a source.
All these made the poll panel suspicious about the presence of dead voters.
“It is yet to be identified how many of the dead voters of 2002 list still figure in the list, but the officials in the poll panel have become cautious and additional stress could be laid on identifying the dead voters in the existing electoral rolls during the upcoming SIR exercise. Not only voters who figure in the 2002 lists, some voters enrolled after 2002 could have also died in recent years. It needs to be ensured that the names of all the dead voters are deleted to keep the rolls clean,” said an official.
Bengal’s ruling Trinamool Congress has been vehemently opposing the SIR, calling it a “backdoor NRC” attempt and a ploy of the “compromised” EC to delete voters unlikely to vote for the BJP. On the other hand, the presence of dead voters on the rolls can give the Opposition the ammo to claim that the ruling Trinamool used them as proxy votes.