Bengal SIR: Progeny mapping revealed a large voter number, but the ECI is skeptical

Bengal SIR: Following the completion of the enumeration phase of West Bengal’s three-stage Special Intensive Revision (SIR), the Election Commission of India (ECI) remains skeptical because to the unusually high number of current voters found via progeny mapping.

According to data from the Chief Electoral Officer’s (CEO) office, the total number of current voters identified through progeny-mapping is 3,84,85,166, based on the trend of digitizing the properly completed enumeration forms that booth-level officers (BLOs) collect from voters.

However, according to the same digitization trends, there are far fewer current voters—2,94,52,893—identified by self-mapping.

Voters who have names on both the voters’ list from 2002, the previous time the SIR was held in West Bengal, and the voters’ list as of October 27, 2025, are considered self-mapping voters.

Progeny-mapping voters, on the other hand, are individuals whose names appear on the 2002 voter list instead of their own.

The electoral officials in West Bengal involved in the SIR process have already been instructed by the ECI, via the CEO’s office, to double-check the information of the voters found by progeny-mapping before adding their names to the draft voters’ list, which would be released on December 16.

In order to oversee the process of rechecking the date for the voters identified by progeny-mapping, the ECI has instructed the special roll observers it selected to monitor the current SIR activity.

According to sources in the CEO’s office, election officials have been instructed to use extra caution while rechecking the data for such voters, particularly those whose age gap with their parents is presumably small.

The Electoral Officers, particularly the Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) and the Additional Electoral Registration Officers (AEROs), must be cautious in verifying that the new photos submitted by voters with the properly completed enumeration forms match the ones printed on the enumeration forms, according to sources in the CEO’s office.

On February 14, 2026, West Bengal’s final voter list will be released.

Voting dates for the state’s Assembly elections are anticipated to be announced by the ECI shortly after.