The Election Commission of India has begun an intensive drive to verify as many suspicious entries as possible in Bengal before the enumeration phase concludes on Thursday.

The last-minute effort began after the EC found that only some 30 lakh voters remained unmapped — those who could not link themselves with names in the 2002 post-SIR rolls — a fraction of the poll panel's estimate of 1.5 crore.

The EC, therefore, suspects shady dealings, said a senior official.

During a pre-SIR mapping of 2002 and 2025 electoral rolls, 2.4 crore voters of 2025 rolls had their names in the 2002 rolls. It was estimated that another 2.5 crore voters would be able to establish their links.

“It was estimated by the poll panel that over 1.5 crore voters would have to establish their claims by submitting their documents to get included in the list, but after 98 per cent of 7.66 crore enumeration forms were digitised, the figure stood at 30 lakh. The EC suspects a concentrated effort to link several voters with the 2002 rolls fictitiously,” said a senior official.

During a video conference on Tuesday with chief electoral officers of all 12 states where the SIR is being conducted, chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar asked Bengal CEO Manoj Agarwal to initiate all possible steps to recheck all fictitious entries before draft rolls are published on December 16, sources said.

The instruction was based on nearly 70 lakh suspicious entries with "erroneous links" with those in the 2002 rolls.

Nearly 50 lakh persons who are in the 2025 rolls have linked themselves with the 2002 rolls, showing voters of 2002 rolls as their parents or grandparents.

However, the entries have thrown up several mismatches such as wrong names of parents or improbable ages of the grandparents, EC sources said.

Moreover, there were several entries with completely mismatched photographs.

For example, many elderly people have attached photographs of youths aged between 20 and 30 years as their own. Similarly, some male voters have attached photographs of women.

Booth-level officers (BLOs) were also asked to visit the residences of these voters once again for a repeat verification.

The BLOs have been tasked to take photographs of these voters, if they are found at all, on their phone and submit a report. If entries are found to be erroneous, the enumeration forms for such voters will be rolled back.

The option of editing entries of the enumeration forms has been added as a feature to the BLO app.

The EC has also asked the BLOs to visit residences of all voters aged above 85 years whose enumeration forms were uploaded.

"Lakhs of voters aged above 85 years have filled in enumeration forms. This is nothing unusual, but the BLOs have to visit these elderly voters and take a photograph on their mobile phones as the EC wants to be sure that all dead voters are deleted before the draft rolls are published," said a source.

So far, nearly 57 lakh dead, shifted, absent and duplicate voters have been identified in Bengal.

According to the SIR guideline, people who can't link themselves with the voters figuring in the 2002 post-SIR rolls will be called for hearing and verification. "All suspicious voters could be called for verification and hearing. That figure in Bengal could cross one crore," said a source.