The Election Commission of India has deleted more than 9,000 names from the electoral rolls of Kaliganj Assembly constituency in Nadia during a special summary revision carried out between April 8 and 24.
The move raised questions on whether the poll panel initiated a process to erase “ghost” voters from Bengal's electoral roll ahead of the 2026 Assembly polls.
“During the special summary revision, names of 9,228 voters were deleted from the voter list. Of them, 6,274 were dead voters and 2,954 had shifted to different places where they have electoral photo identity cards (EPIC) in their addresses,” said an EC source.
The deletion of so many voters in a summary revision is significant. Usually, the EC orders a recheck of the entire process if 2 per cent of the names are deleted from the electoral roll. In case of Kaliganj, the percentage is around 3.66 per cent as the segment had a total of 2.52 lakh voters before the summary revision started.
“About 3.66 per cent of deleted voters is very high considering the poll panel’s permissible limit of 2 per cent. If the percentage of deleted voters reach the 2 per cent mark, the poll panel orders a re-verification so that no genuine voter is left out. In Bengal, such a large number of voters was never deleted from the electoral roll,” said a senior government official.
The deletion of a large number of voters in Kaliganj assumes significance primarily for two reasons.
First, the deletion of so many names during a special electoral roll revision is unusual in Bengal. Second, it gives a clear hint that the poll panel could take up the revision of electoral rolls in the state very seriously ahead of the 2026 Assembly polls.
Usually, electoral roll revision is carried out throughout the country between October and December every year. The revised electoral roll is usually published in all states on January 5.
In Kaliganj, the special summary revision of electoral rolls had to be carried out as a bypoll is due here with the seat falling vacant following TMC MLA Nasiruddin Ahmed's death in February this year.
“The bypoll date has not been declared yet but the EC is keeping the electoral roll updated so that the bypoll could be held any time after April,” said a source.
An official pointed out that as only 1,669 new voters were included in the electoral roll, the number of electorates would go down by 7,559 voters.
The number of deleted voters — 9,228 — is also deemed high here as the victory margin was fewer than 10,000 votes in some 70 seats in the 2021 Assembly polls. However, in Kaliganj, the TMC candidate had won by a margin of 46,000-odd votes.
Sources said that when the special summary roll revision was ordered, the EC stressed finding out whether the booth-level officers (BLOs) were carrying out their duties properly to keep the electoral roll error-free. It was revealed that the majority of the BLOs did not maintain their register properly, where they were supposed to keep a record of existing voters in the booth and the names of the persons who attained 18 years of age.
A BLO is a local government or a semi-government official familiar with the local electors and generally a voter in the same polling area who assists in updating the voter list.
Some 30 per cent BLOs kept their record up-to-date while the remaining did not maintain their register properly. It was also found that the BLOs did not ask the relatives of the deceased voters to file Form 7 to delete his or her name from the roll. Even the BLOs can file Form 7 suo motu in case the families don’t file it. Most BLOs did not do it. That is why such a large number of voters were deleted from the roll during summary revision, sources said.
Opposition reacts
Deletion of dead and shifted voters assumes significance in Bengal as the Opposition parties always alleged that the ruling party resorts to proxy voting in their names.
BJP sources said the party was skeptical about the move as the party wanted to be sure that the deleted names were bogus voters and not BJP supporters. “Let us see the revised list first and then we will be able to comment on this,” said Jagannath Chattopadhyay, a general secretary of the state BJP.
CPM leader Sujan Chakraborty said the number of deleted voters suggested that their allegation was true.
“We were claiming that the electoral roll in the state was full of ghost voters. I also feel that the number of ghost voters is higher than 3.66 percent. It could be around 6 to 7 per cent. We demand roll revision be done with extra care before the 2026 polls,” said Chakraborty.
