Bengal SIR reveals a major update as 99% digitisation is completed and over 53 lakh voters may be excluded from the electoral list. The Bengal SIR process highlights issues like deceased, shifted, duplicate and untraceable voters.
The Bengal SIR process has moved into a crucial phase as West Bengal finishes almost all digitisation of the forms collected by booth-level officers. Officials confirmed that 99 per cent of digitisation work is done, and early numbers from the Bengal SIR exercise show that about 53 lakh voters may be excluded from the present electoral list after verification.
The Bengal SIR findings show that out of 52,99,663 voters found eligible for exclusion, a large share are deceased voters. Officials reported that 23,48,095 names belong to people who are no longer alive but still appeared in the list. This has been one of the major concerns for clean and accurate voting rolls in the state.
The Bengal SIR also reported that 18,55,302 voters shifted from one place to another, leading to their names being marked for exclusion. Another 9,42,162 voters were declared untraceable when BLOs visited their given addresses. The list further shows 1,22,303 duplicate voters whose names were registered in two different booths.
An official insider added that “the rest 31,801 are found excludable for various other reasons”, completing the total number identified so far under the Bengal SIR process. The revision exercise also revealed that only seven booths in the entire state have no deceased voter, no duplicate voter, and no shifted voter. This marks a steep drop from 2,208 such booths earlier in the week, showing how rapidly the Bengal SIR numbers changed after strict reviews.
Districts like Malda, Jalpaiguri, South 24 Parganas, Howrah, West Midnapore and Purulia still have one booth each that show no discrepancies. Just a few days earlier, South 24 Parganas alone had 760 such booths, but daily checks brought the number down to only one.
The Election Commission of India has instructed all BLOs to work carefully and complete the Bengal SIR updates without mistakes. The CEO’s office has warned that any “deliberate” error in uploading voters’ data will lead to strong disciplinary action.
Since BLOs are working under ECI for this special revision, officials reminded them that the commission can act against any negligence found in the Bengal SIR process.
The Bengal SIR update shows how large-scale corrections can shape the final voters’ list before elections. With the digitisation almost complete, West Bengal now moves closer to a cleaner and more accurate electoral record.
