The Election Commission of India (ECI) has directed Chief Electoral Officers (CEOs) in 12 states, including West Bengal, to hand over the list of voters identified as dead, relocated, or missing under the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) to booth-level agents of all political parties before the draft electoral roll is published.
According to officials, the move is intended to ensure transparency and prevent genuine voters from being mistakenly removed from the electoral rolls. The same system was implemented earlier during the SIR process in Bihar, and the Commission has now instructed all other states to follow the Bihar model.
In West Bengal, the ECI has already released a detailed breakup of voters flagged for deletion under various categories. The data shows that 24,14,700 voters have been identified as deceased, 11,57,889 as missing, and 19,89,914 as relocated. Additionally, 1,35,627 names have been marked as fake and 54,027 fall under other categories. Altogether, 57,52,207 names are proposed to be removed from the voter list in the state.
Officials added that in cases where a voter has changed address multiple times, only one verified address will be retained. If booth-level officers visited a household three or more times without meeting the voter, those names were also marked for deletion as “untraceable.”
The Commission has emphasised that political parties must get access to the deleted voters list in every booth. This will allow booth-level agents to cross-check the omissions and flag any genuine electors who may have been wrongly removed during the revision process.
The directive is seen as an attempt to maintain accountability, address concerns of voter disenfranchisement, and ensure that the upcoming electoral roll is both accurate and error-free.