Bengal SIR: As of right now, ECI will begin issuing notifications for hearings on claims and objections
Bengal SIR: The first phase of the three-part Special Intensive Exercise (SIR), which began on November 4, will come to a close on Thursday when the Election Commission of India (ECI) begins to serve notifications for hearing on the claims and objections on the draft voters’ list in West Bengal.
On Tuesday, the draft list was made public. According to sources in the Chief Electoral Officer’s (CEO) office, the ECI will first issue warnings to “unmapped” voters, or those who have no relation to the 2002 voters’ list, either via “self-mapping” or “progeny mapping.”
“Self-mapping voters” are those whose names appear on both the list of voters as of October 2025 and the list from 2002, when West Bengal last held an ISR.
Conversely, voters whose parents’ names are on the 2002 list are considered “progeny mapping voters.”
There are now 30,59,273 voters in West Bengal who have been classified as “unmapped voters.”
“Those who get hearing notifications will have seven days to show up for the hearing. The notifications will include the hearing’s dates, hours, and locations, according to an insider in the CEO’s office.
In addition to the 58,20,899 voters who were eliminated from the previous list as of October 2025—voters who were dead, shifted, untraceable, duplicate, or eligible for exclusion for other reasons—these 30,59,273 are also included in the new list.
Simultaneously, the ECI identified more than 1.60 crore voters, in which instances strange family tree data was found, even if those voters had “self-mapping” or “progeny mapping” connections to the 2002 list. In addition, many of these voters with questionable family-tree data would be called to a hearing to explain why this count is strange.
Voters who became dads at the age of 15 or less, voters who became grandfathers at the age of 40 or younger, and voters whose mothers’ and fathers’ names are the same on the most recent voter list are among those with strange family data.
In one case, a voter who allegedly became the father of two kids at the age of five has been recognized.
On February 14 of the following year, West Bengal’s final voter list would be released. The state’s Assembly election polling dates will then be announced by the ECI.