The draft voters’ list for Kolkata North and Kolkata South Lok Sabha constituencies is expected to shrink by about 21 percent as the Election Commission of India carries out a large-scale cleanup under its Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls. The revised draft roll will be published on December 16.
Officials said that out of 33.6 lakh registered electors listed on October 27, more than 7 lakh names are being marked for deletion after being categorised as ASDD, which refers to Absentee, Shifted, Dead or Duplicate voters. This is one of the most extensive removal exercises undertaken in Kolkata in recent years.
In Kolkata North, 3,80,202 electors, or around 25.5 percent of the total, have been identified under the ASDD list. The highest concentration appears in the Jorasanko Assembly constituency, where 36.4 percent of voters have been flagged. In Kolkata South, the ASDD proportion varies across administrative zones, averaging 22.4 percent under the Kolkata South district election office and 12.8 percent under the South 24 Parganas office. Kolkata Port shows the highest share in the southern constituency with 23.6 percent.
Election officials said the unusually high number of deletions highlights long-standing shortcomings in previous annual revisions. These revisions suffered from inadequate deployment of Booth Level Officers and outdated verification, resulting in voter rolls retaining large numbers of dead, shifted or duplicate entries. Many BLOs assigned earlier were not based in the city, limiting their ability to conduct accurate field checks.
To address these lapses, the Election Commission has introduced stronger verification mechanisms, including software that identifies demographically or photographically similar electors, and cross-checking with death registries and deactivated Aadhaar data. Enumeration work will continue until December 11, meaning additional entries may still be flagged before finalisation of the draft list.
Along with the draft roll, the commission will publish separate lists for each ASDD category, enabling citizens to verify deletions and file objections if required. While the initiative aims to enhance the accuracy of electoral rolls for future elections, the scale of removals also underscores the need for transparency and proper grievance processes to prevent the exclusion of genuine voters.