Image is for representational purposes only. | Photo credit: The Hindu
Since the introduction of the identity card in January 2009, around 34 lakh Aadhaar card holders in West Bengal have been found to be “dead”, UIDAI authorities informed the Election Commission of India (ECI).
The UIDAI authorities also told the ECI that about 13 lakh people in the state never possessed Aadhaar cards but have since died.
The information was shared during a meeting between Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) officials and the state’s Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Manoj Kumar Agarwal, amid the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) enumeration of electoral rolls.
The meeting followed an ECI directive asking all state CEOs to coordinate with Aadhaar authorities to verify voter details and identify discrepancies.
“The EC has received numerous complaints regarding fake voters, deceased voters, absent voters and duplicate names in the rolls. It is expected that the UIDAI data on deceased citizens will help us in detecting and removing such entries from the voter rolls,” said a senior official from the director general’s office.
After the enumeration and publication stage on December 9, if applicants are found to have submitted forms with names that have been deleted from the Aadhaar database, they could be summoned by the concerned Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) for verification, he said.
Survey officials said they are also collecting information from banks as Aadhaar is linked to most accounts.
“Banks have provided details of accounts where KYC updates have not been completed for years, helping in the identification of deceased persons whose names still appear in the electoral rolls,” the official said.
The SIR process is currently underway across West Bengal to root out dead and bogus voters. Booth Level Officers (BLOs) conduct door-to-door verification by distributing census forms based on the 2025 voter lists and then mapping the data provided by applicants in those forms with the voter lists of 2002, when the exercise was last held.
According to information from the Director General’s office, more than 6.98 lakh (91.19%) census forms have been distributed in the state till 20:00 on Wednesday (November 12, 2025).
The presence of ghost, deceased or duplicate voters in the draft list may lead to disciplinary action against the responsible BLOs, officials said.
Election Registration Officers (EROs) have been instructed to ensure accuracy and vigilance in the verification process, they said.
Published – 13 Nov 2025 10:11 IST
