The Election Commission was forced to deploy special roll observers in each of the state’s five divisions after mapping showed that lakhs of voters whose names figured in the 2025 lists linked themselves to the 2002 voters through individuals who they apparently falsely claimed were their grandparents.
“Soon after the EC flagged that many voters enrolled in the 2025 lists were linking themselves with 2002 voters as their children, but the names of their parents did not match with those given in the existing rolls, several enumeration forms were uploaded linking voters in the 2002 voters as grandparents. In such cases, the data mismatch is severe,” said a senior official, adding that had forced the poll panel to think in a different way to undertake the hearing and verification process properly.
Sources said the decision to appoint the five special observers was taken as the poll panel could not trust the officials working in the district anymore.
“The way lakhs of voters, it could be as high as 30 lakh, have been mapped with the 2002 voters erroneously, it is clear that it has been done with the possible support of ground-level officers. This is why the EC had to think differently to ensure that no such flaws took place during the hearing. The special roll observers in the divisions will now monitor the activity of the officials, including DMs, during the hearing,” said a source.
A senior bureaucrat explained how the erroneous linking of 2025 voters with 2002 voters, who they claimed were their grandparents, drew the attention of the poll panel.
“It was found that many of the voters whose names figured in the 2025 rolls have linked 2002 voters as their grandparents, but their age difference remained between 20 and 40 years. This made the EC suspicious,” said a source.
Sources also said that most of those cases were identified in North and South 24-Parganas, where pre-SIR mapping of 2002 and 2025 rolls was very low. In North 24-Parganas, only 45 per cent of existing voters could link themselves with the 2002 rolls, while the figure for South 24-Parganas was 55 per cent.
“But after spotting lakhs of erroneous mapping, the figure increased significantly. According to the enumeration forms uploaded, more than 70 per cent of the voters in these two districts have linked themselves with the 2002 rolls. Now, those who have suspicious links with the 2002 rolls will be called for the hearing to establish their claims by submitting proper documents. If the officials don’t check documents properly, these voters would get into the list,” said a source.
A section of officials said that the way the forms were filled in, it appeared to be a concentrated effort, apparently by some professionals.
“It is clear that the BLOs in these cases did not deliver and collect forms from the residences of the voters. It appeared that those were filled in by the same group of people,” said another official.
The BJP alleged that an agency was helping the Trinamool Congress in election-related work. But the ruling party rejected the charges.
“We had opened several camps where party volunteers helped villagers fill the forms. But no agency was deputed for the task,” said a ruling party leader.