The city has the highest percentage of name deletions among all Bengal districts in the draft electoral rolls released by the Election Commission on Tuesday after the SIR exercise.

The 11 Assembly constituencies of Calcutta account for 6.06 lakh of the 58.17 lakh names deleted from the draft rolls. This means 25.11 per cent of the names that featured in the last summary revision of rolls, published earlier this year, have not found a place in the post-SIR draft rolls. In terms of percentage, this is the highest among districts, with North 24-Parganas having faced a culling of 9.54 per cent names and South 24-Parganas 9.49 per cent.

In absolute numbers, Calcutta has the third-highest figure of name deletions after 8.18 lakh in South 24-Parganas and 7.92 lakh in North 24-Parganas.

The deleted names are those of deceased, permanently shifted, absent and duplicate voters, or those whose enumeration forms were returned blank to the poll panel by BLOs.

According to the details released by the Election Commission, the enumeration forms of 58.17 lakh of the 7.66 crore registered voters in Bengal could not be collected as BLOs marked them dead, shifted, absent, or enrolled at multiple places. The draft roll that was published on Tuesday excluded these names.

In south Calcutta’s Kolkata Port segment, 63,730 names have been excluded from the draft rolls, while the figure is 65,170 in Ballygunge.

In Bhabanipur, the Assembly segment of chief minister Mamata Banerjee, 44,786 names have been deleted. In Rashbehari, the figure is 42,519.

In north Calcutta, 74,553 names have been deleted from the roll of the Chowringhee Assembly segment, which has witnessed the maximum deletions in the city, followed by Jorashanko at 72,900.

In Beleghata, 56,487 names have been deleted, and the figure for Entally is 49,084. In Shyampukur, 42,303 names have been deleted, and in Maniktala the count is 41,870. The Kashipur-Belgachia Assembly segment has witnessed a deletion of 56,360 names.

In the Kasba segment of South 24-Parganas, 56,247 names have been deleted. The Jadavpur segment has seen 54,232 name deletions, and Behala Purba 53,084. The corresponding figure for Behala Paschim is 52,430. In North 24-Parganas, 49,604 names have been excluded from the roll for Rajarhat-Gopalpur.

In Howrah, Assembly segments like Howrah Uttar and Howrah Dakshin recorded a large number of deleted names — 60,419 and 54,114, respectively.

Officials in the poll panel said the trend emerging from the list of deleted names suggested that urban areas of the state had recorded more deletions than rural areas.

“In Calcutta, it was found that many of the voters have shifted permanently and enrolled their names elsewhere, but did not get their names deleted from the city’s rolls. The numbers of deceased and untraceable voters are also high in the city,” said a seniorEC official.

A source in the poll panel who was among those who monitored the enumeration process in Calcutta said the SIR drive revealed that many families had left the city a few years ago by selling their properties, which have given way to high-rises. But the names of these people were not deleted during the annual summary revision of rolls in Calcutta.

“For example, at least 25 families who once lived in the Chakraberia (South) Road area of Bhowanipore have left for other places after selling their properties but not applied for deletion from the constituency’s roll. They have enrolled themselves as voters in their new places,” said the official.

A BLO who worked in Ballygunge said that of the people he found to have left the constituency, the 22-30 age group made up the maximum numbers. The names of these youths, who moved elsewhere because of professional reasons, remained on the constituency’s roll.

“During the enumeration phase, the family members of some of the voters filled in forms on their behalf. But a large number of these youths have enrolled themselves as voters in Bengaluru, Mumbai, Pune, Delhi and Gurgaon, where they work. They enrolled themselves there only to get a residential address proof. We have deleted the names of such voters,” the BLO said.