Bengal SIR: Number of applications from new voters negligible compared to those excluded
Kolkata: In the draft voters’ list, published on December 16, the number of applications for new enrolment is negligible compared to the number of voters excluded from the previous list as of October 2025.
Sources in the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), West Bengal, have said that the number of applications for new voters’ enrolment during the first stage of their enrolment has been 3,24,800 compared to the massive figure of 58,20,899 excluded voters from the earlier list.
The number of applications for new voters’ enrolment has also been negligible compared to the figure of 30,59,273 unmapped voters, meaning those who have no connection with the voters’ list for 2002, the last time when the SIR was conducted in the state, either through “self-mapping” or through ”progeny mapping”.
The figure of 3,24,800 applications for new voters’ enrolment through submission of Form-6 includes those who have just completed 18 years, as well as those voters who have opted for the shifting of voters’ enrolment.
However, the CEO office insiders said the number on this count will definitely increase in the coming days since sufficient time is there ahead for submission of Form-6. The final voters’ list will be published on February 14 next year, which will mark the end of the SIR exercise that started on November 4.
Soon after that, the ECI will announce the polling dates for the crucial Assembly elections in the state next year.
The ECI has already made it clear that the presence of names in the draft voters’ list, either through “self-mapping or through “progeny mapping”, does not necessarily guarantee retention of the names in the final voters’ list, considering that the Commission has already identified 1.60 crore voters, in whose cases weird family-tree data has been detected during the revision exercise.
Many of these voters with doubtful family-tree data would also be summoned for a hearing and asked to explain the weirdness on this count.
The voters with weird family data include those who have fathers’ and mothers’ names the same in the last voters’ list, voters who became fathers at the age of 15 or even below, and voters who became grandfathers at the age of 40 or even below. An instance has surfaced where the voter has been identified who supposedly became a father of two sons at the age of five.