Ahead of the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in poll-bound Bengal, the Election Commission of India has found that around 50 per cent of the voters aged over 100 years in the state are dead but continue to exist on the voter list.

The EC had put forward names of 13,000 centenarians who figure in the existing electoral rolls of Bengal to the chief electoral officer’s (CEO) office in Calcutta to verify their status a fortnight ago.

When the CEO’s office verified the names at the grassroots, it was found that around 50 per cent of them had died but their names were not deleted during the summary revision of the electoral rolls published in January 2025.

“This is a cause of concern as it was found that there is a lackadaisical approach of the authorities concerned in deleting names of dead and shifted voters from the rolls over the years. This causes a problem as allegations are often made that the names of dead and shifted voters are used by the political parties for proxy voting. This is why the EC always tries to keep the rolls clean,” said a source in the poll panel.

Sources said that the "lackadaisical" approach towards deleting names of dead and shifted voters was first noticed by the EC during a special summary revision of electoral rolls of Kaliganj Assembly segment in Nadia district ahead of bypolls held in June this year. There, more than 8,000 names of shifted and dead voters were deleted from a total of 2.52 lakh voters.

“This was an eye opener for the EC as it was found that the booth level officers (BLOs) had not performed their role properly. They were supposed to recommend deletions of dead and shifted voters to the assistant electoral registration officer (AERO) or the ERO. This is why the EC decided to appoint BLOs from the pool of direct government employees,” said a senior official.

After Kaliganj, it was again found that dead voters were not deleted when the EC asked about voters who had crossed 100 years of age.

“It was a part of a nationwide exercise. All the CEOs were sent lists of centenarian voters of the states concerned and were asked to verify their status. But it now appears that no other state will match Bengal in terms of the number of dead voters in the lists,” the source alleged.

Sources in the poll panel said that the high percentage of dead voters in Bengal could lead to controversies during the proposed special intensive revision.

“Bengal has 7.62 crore voters according to the existing electoral rolls. Now, if it is found that 50 lakh or 60 lakh voters are dead but their names have not been deleted, all the parties can start raising questions over the process. That's why the EC has become very cautious about scanning the electoral rolls carefully,” said an EC source.

Another source said that the majority of the dead voters who still figure in the list could be identified before the SIR starts.

The EC has asked to link the 2002 and 2025 electoral rolls by September 26.

“When the existing voter list (of 2025) would be tallied with that of 2002, a primary idea about the number of dead voters who still figure in the rolls will be clear…. However, the actual number of dead voters can be identified only after the SIR,” said a source.