Bengal SIR: EC begins releasing revised rolls; 1.18L names deleted in Bankura

The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Saturday began the phased publication of post-Special Intensive Revision (SIR) electoral rolls in West Bengal, with early figures from Bankura district indicating that around 1.18 lakh names have been deleted since the exercise began.

Hard copies of the updated rolls were displayed in districts including Bankura and Cooch Behar, though the lists were yet to be uploaded online on designated ECI portals and mobile applications till the last reports came in.

In Bankura, where the electorate stood at 30,33,830 when the SIR exercise commenced on 4 November 2025, the number had already dropped to 29,01,009 in the draft rolls published on 16 December.

Subsequent hearings and scrutiny led to the deletion of around 4,000 additional names. At the same time, several thousand fresh applications under Form 6 — used for inclusion of new voters — were approved.

Following these changes, Bankura’s final electoral roll now stands at approximately 29,15,000, marking a net deletion of about 1.18 lakh names since the start of the SIR process, according to a senior district official. The district is considered politically significant, with both the BJP and the Trinamool Congress enjoying comparable influence.

ECI officials said deletions were largely due to death, migration, duplication and untraceable entries, while new inclusions were processed after verification.

Reports from other districts are still awaited, as the publication of rolls continues in phases. Supplementary lists are expected as adjudication of pending cases moves forward.

Officials said that the publication categorises the 7.08 crore electors listed in the 16 December draft rolls into three groups — ‘approved’, ‘deleted’ and ‘under adjudication/under consideration’.

Commission sources also indicated that nearly 17,000 names were missing from the approved rolls in parts of north Kolkata, adding to the political sensitivity surrounding the revision.

The draft rolls released in December had already shown the electorate shrinking from 7.66 crore — based on the rolls up to August 2025 — to 7.08 crore, with more than 58 lakh names deleted during the first phase of scrutiny.

The SIR exercise, the first statewide revision of this scale since 2002, began with the distribution of enumeration forms on 4 November last year. The Commission took 116 days to provisionally complete the process and publish what officials termed a “final but dynamic” list, as adjudication remains ongoing in several cases.

The second phase involved hearings for 1.67 crore electors, including 1.36 crore flagged for ‘logical discrepancies’ and 31 lakh lacking proper mapping.

Around 60 lakh voters remain under adjudication, meaning their inclusion or exclusion will be determined through supplementary rolls to be issued in phases.

Meanwhile, the rollout triggered visible public anxiety. Long queues were seen outside district election offices and cyber cafes as voters sought to verify their names in the updated rolls.

In districts such as Bankura, North 24 Parganas and parts of Kolkata, hard copies displayed on notice boards drew steady crowds from early morning. Many residents scanned printed sheets page by page, photographed entries on their phones, or approached officials for assistance.

At district magistrate and sub-divisional offices, voters stood in serpentine queues to check whether their names fell under the ‘approved’, ‘deleted’ or ‘under adjudication’ categories.

With the updated rolls not yet fully accessible online, cyber cafes reported a sudden surge in footfall, as people clutching voter ID cards and enumeration slips lined up to check their status — underscoring both widespread concern and the high political stakes ahead of the upcoming Assembly elections.

With PTI inputs