EC Delists 58.20 Lakh Invalid Voters In WB SIR Draft
The exact figure of the deleted voters’ names is 58,20,898, according to the SIR draft roll published by the office of the Chief Electoral Officer, West Bengal on Tuesday.
Kolkata: The Election Commission has deleted around 58.20 lakh invalid voters' names after conducting the first phase of its special intensive revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls in poll-bound West Bengal.
The exact figure of the deleted voters’ names is 58,20,898, according to the SIR draft roll published by the office of the Chief Electoral Officer, West Bengal on Tuesday. It included 127 electors at a booth in Bhowanipore of South Kolkata where chief minister Mamata Banerjee casts her vote in every poll.
With the exclusion of around 58.20 lakh invalid names from the voters' list, the total number of valid electors in the state has been reduced to 7,08,16,630 from 7,66,37,529.
In the evening, the office of the Chief Electoral Officer, West Bengal, said in a statement, “Out of 7,66,37,529 electors, over as on 27.1.2025 over 7,08,16,630 electors have submitted their Enumeration Forms as on 16.12.2025 reflecting an overwhelming participation in the first phase of SIR.”
It added, “The successful completion of this phase is the result of coordinated efforts of DEOs of all 24 districts, 294 EROs, 3059 AEROs, and BLOs deployed at 80,681 polling booths, supported by volunteers. Field representatives of all 8 recognised political parties, including their District Presidents, also actively participated, with as many as 1,81,454 Booth Level Agents (BLAs) appointed by them.”
Referring to the 58.20 lakh invalid voters, the poll body pointed out that the number of ‘Deceased’ category voters stood at around 24.16 lakhs which also accounted for 3.15% in the tally. Incidentally, a Trinamul Congress councillor Surjya De from Hooghly in West Bengal has found his name in this category.
However, a larger chunk belonged to the ‘Shifted/Absent’ category which was estimated to have 32.65 lakhs invalid voters, accounting for 4.26%. The lowest was those in the ‘Enrolled at Multiple Places in Electoral Roll’ category. It had around 1.38 lakh voters accounting for 0.18%.
The poll body statement also underlined that the booth level officers “did not find these electors or did not get back their Enumeration Forms because they either became electors in other States/UTs or were not found in existence or did not submit the form till December 11 or were not willing to register as an elector for some reason or other.”
It however mentioned, “Genuine electors can still be added back in electoral rolls during the Claims and Objection period from 16.12.2025 to 15.01.2026. The name of the Electors found enrolled at multiple places in Electoral Rolls will be retained only at one place.” The final voters’ list will be published on February 14 next year.