The Election Commission has decided to publish the names of 32 lakh unmapped voters, along with the list of electors flagged with logical discrepancies, though the Supreme Court asked the EC to publish the names of voters with logical discrepancies only.
The step, sources said, was initiated to maintain a complete “transparency” in the ongoing special intensive revision (SIR) of the voter list in Bengal.
In a letter to the Bengal chief electoral officer (CEO), Manoj Agarwal, the secretary of the EC, Pawan Sharma, made it clear on Wednesday that the list of unmapped voters, who did not link themselves to the 2002 electoral rolls through self or progeny mapping, and the voters flagged with logical discrepancies should be published by January 24.
“By 24.02.2026, the names of the persons, figuring under category of ‘Logical Discrepancies’ and also under the category of ‘unmapped’ shall be displayed at the Gram Panchayat Bhawans, public places in every Taluka, and Block Office of every Taluka (Sub-Division), as well as in the Ward Offices in the cities of the urban areas,” reads the letter sent to the CEO.
A senior official on the poll panel said that initially, 1.67 crore people had been flagged with logical discrepancies in their SIR enumeration forms in Bengal. But the figure was cut down to 1.36 crore by sending booth-level officers (BLOs) to the homes of the voters to clear doubts. Further, the figure was cut down to 94.5 lakh through verification by the BLOs. As the BLOs could not clear doubts over these 94.5 lakh voters, it was decided that they all would be called for hearings.
“This is the reason we were not able to publish the list as we were desperately trying to cut down the number through verification by the BLOs. Now, as the Supreme Court found it logical to identify voters with logical discrepancies in their forms, the EC can publish all the names without any delay or effort to cut down the list. It will soon be decided how many names will figure in the list of voters with logical discrepancies,” said a senior poll panel official.
The EC also asked the chief secretary, the director general of police and the Calcutta police commissioner to provide enough manpower to the Bengal CEO for deployment at panchayat offices/block offices and other places of hearing to handle documents to be submitted related to hearings and objections.
The poll panel also asked the top three officials to ensure that no law and order problems took place at the venues where submission of documents or hearings would be conducted following the Supreme Court order.
The EC has so far conducted hearings at the BDO offices. Following the Supreme Court order, the exercise of hearings and submission of documents will take place at the gram panchayat offices and ward offices as well. Additional manpower would be required to complete the work smoothly.
“Strict action shall be taken in case of any non-compliance of the above directions or occurrence of instances of any disturbance to SIR proceedings due to omission or commission of any act by the concerned authorities,” reads the letter sent to the chief secretary, the DGP and the City police commissioner on Wednesday.
The EC asked the CEO to implement all the orders given by the Supreme Court, which include giving receipts for documents submitted by the voters and accepting the admit card of Madhyamik.
