Bengal SIR: Compared to those excluded, the number of fresh voter applications is insignificant

Bengal SIR: The number of applications for fresh enrollment in the draft voters’ list, which was released on December 16, is insignificant when compared to the number of voters who were disqualified from the prior list as of October 2025.

In contrast to the staggering number of 58,20,899 disqualified voters from the previous list, 3,24,800 applications for new voter registration were received during the first stage of their enrolment, according to sources in the West Bengal Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) office.

When compared to the 30,59,273 unmapped voters—those who have no relationship to the voters’ list for 2002, the last time the SIR was carried out in the state—whether through “self-mapping” or “progeny mapping,” the number of applications for new voter enrollment has also been insignificant.

The number of 3,24,800 applications for new voter enrollment via Form-6 submission comprises both voters who have chosen to move their enrollment and those who have just turned eighteen.

However, the CEO office sources said that because there is still enough time to submit Form-6, the figure on this count would undoubtedly rise in the days ahead. The SIR exercise, which began on November 4, will conclude on February 14 of the next year with the publication of the final voters’ list.

Voting dates for the state’s important Assembly elections next year will be announced shortly by the ECI.

Given that the Commission has already identified 1.60 crore voters, in whose cases strange family-tree data was discovered during the revision exercise, the ECI has already made it clear that the inclusion of names in the draft voters’ list—whether through “self-mapping” or “progeny mapping”—does not necessarily guarantee that the names will remain in the final voters’ list.

A hearing would be called for several of these voters who had questionable family tree information, and they would be asked to explain the anomalies in this tally.

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 were identical on the previous voters’ list are among those with strange family data. A voter who allegedly became a father to two kids at the age of five has been recognized in one case.