The Election Commission is gearing up to conduct a hearing and verification for a huge number of voters — which could touch a figure of two crore — as they might not be able to establish links with the 2002 electoral rolls during the ongoing special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.

“So far 2.40 crore voters have directly established links with the 2002 electoral rolls as their names figured in the post-SIR rolls of 2002. It is assumed that another 2.5 crore people will be able to establish their links with the 2002 list, as any one of their parents’ name figures in the electoral roll prepared after the 2002 SIR. These voters would not be required to go through any kind of verification,” said a source in the poll panel.

Sources also said that primary reports from districts suggested that nearly 60 lakh enumeration forms could not be filled in and were returned to booth-level officers (BLOs) as they were suspected to be either cases of multiple entries, permanently shifted, dead or bogus voters. The EC has already reached out to more than 99 per cent of the electors with enumeration forms.

“The state has a total of 7.66 crore voters’ names on the 2025 electoral rolls. Now, it appears that more than two crore voters might have to go through the hearing and verification process. The EC will initiate all possible measures to make the process smooth and ensure that no genuine voter is left out,” said the source.

According to the schedule, the names of all voters submitting filled-in enumeration forms will figure in the draft rolls to be published on December 9. Those whose names appear on the draft rolls but would not be able to establish links with the 2002 list will be called for the hearing and verification process. The hearing and verification process will start on December 9 and continue till January 31 next year.

“This will be a huge exercise. The EC will train all district election officers as well as electoral registration officers (EROs) on how to conduct the process. The training will include the steps to check the documents to be submitted by the voters who would be called in for the hearing and verification. Moreover, the officials will be trained on the kind of questions the voters who would not be able to establish links with the 2002 polls will be asked,” said a source.

An official explained why the training was needed to make the process smooth.

“For example, if a voter submits a caste certificate or a birth certificate, both papers cannot be verified in the same way. The caste certificates are issued by the SDOs, while local bodies provide the birth certificates. So, for verification, these two certificates would have to be sent to two places. The officials should be careful about the birth certificates which were issued recently,” said the official.

The EC will send notices for a hearing to those who will not be able to establish links with the 2002 SIR in multiple ways.

“A hard copy will be delivered to the residences of the voters. A notification will also be sent to the mobile phones of the voters. There will be enough officers in the AERO and ERO offices to verify the documents and hear the voters. The voters will have to face a common question: where were they or their parents in 2002? Whatever they claim, they have to submit documents to establish their claims,” said an official.

WhatsApp number

The office of the Bengal chief electoral officer, Manoj Kumar Agarwal, launched a WhatsApp number (9830078250) to help clear any kind of doubts of voters. The doubts include complaints of non-receipt of enumeration forms.

A voter can also call landline number (033-223110850) between 10.30am and 5.30pm on working days to clear their doubts. Voters can also lodge their grievances via email. The email id is ceowbcomplaints2024@gmail.com and ceo-election-wb@nic.in.