West Bengal's Voter List Update: Over 53 Lakh Voters Identified for Exclusion

Significant Progress in Voter Enumeration

Kolkata, Dec 5: Nearly 99% of the digitization process for enumeration forms collected by booth-level officers (BLOs) during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in West Bengal has been accomplished. Currently, approximately 53 lakh voters have been identified as eligible for exclusion from the voters’ list.

As of Thursday evening, 98.84% of the completed enumeration forms had been digitized, revealing that 52,99,663 voters are marked for potential exclusion.

Sources from the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of West Bengal indicate that out of the identified voters, 23,48,095 are deceased.

Additionally, 18,55,302 voters have relocated, while 9,42,162 voters are untraceable. There are also 1,22,303 duplicate voters, meaning they are listed in multiple locations.

According to an insider from the CEO’s office, the remaining 31,801 voters are excluded for various other reasons.

Notably, the number of booths in West Bengal without any deceased, duplicate, or relocated voters has significantly decreased to just seven. This is a sharp decline from 2,208 booths reported on Monday, which fell to 480 on Tuesday and further to 29 on Wednesday.

The seven booths currently free of any issues are located in Malda, Jalpaiguri, South 24 Parganas, Howrah, West Midnapore, and Purulia districts.

Initially, South 24 Parganas had the highest number of such booths at 760, but this has now reduced to just one.

The Election Commission of India (ECI) has been actively urging District Magistrates and District Electoral Officers to conduct fresh reviews of these booths, leading to daily changes in statistics.

On Thursday, the ECI warned BLOs involved in the SIR exercise of strict disciplinary measures if any intentional errors in voter data uploads are detected.

The CEO’s office emphasized that since BLOs are currently assigned to the ECI for this exercise, the commission holds the authority to take action against them for any deliberate or negligent mistakes.