Sources in the CEO’s office said artificial intelligence is also being used to detect any duplicates and discrepancies in voters’ pictures and map descendants to the 2002 list.File | Photo credit: The Hindu
Around 30 million voters in West Bengal have not been able to establish a link with the 2002 electoral roll and are likely to be called for a hearing after the draft electoral roll is released, sources in the office of the Chief Electoral Officer of West Bengal said on Thursday (Dec 11, 2025), the last day of the ongoing special intensive revision exercise
This includes nearly 4% of the 7.6 million voters who were on the state’s electoral roll as of October 27, 2025. Sources said the number of voters to be called for hearings is expected to rise based on other factors once the draft list is released.
These numbers were quoted based on data collected up to December 11, the last day of the enumeration phase of the SIR exercise.
Meanwhile, a total of 29.3 lakh voters (38.32%) were linked with their own names in the 2002 electoral roll, while 38.4 lakh voters (50.18%) were linked with their parents and grandparents during the census. However, sources in the CEO’s office said family ties as claimed by voters in their enumeration forms will be scrutinized and verified to remove any discrepancies.
As of Thursday (December 11, 2025), the number of ‘uncollectible’ forms due to absent, shifted, duplicate and dead voters has increased to over 58 million voters in West Bengal, with about 24.2 million voters so far declared dead, according to sources. Nearly 2 million voters had been identified as shifted and roughly 1.4 million as duplicate voters by Thursday afternoon.
Sources in the CEO’s office said artificial intelligence is also being used to detect any duplicates and discrepancies in voters’ pictures and map descendants to the 2002 list.
West Bengal Chief Executive Manoj Kumar Agarwal said on Thursday (Dec 11, 2025) that reports have also been sought from district election officers across the state on high-rise buildings, group housing societies and slums with more than 250 houses or 500 voters where new polling stations can be proposed.
Notably, a day before, the Election Commission had issued a notice to the Chief Executive about the delay in submitting the proposed layout of polling stations in the state based on the survey of high-rise buildings and slums. The Commission has set December 31 as the deadline for sending the proposal to the Commission for approval and February 7, 2026 as the date by which the realignment and rationalization of polling stations in West Bengal should be completed.
On Thursday (December 11, 2025), state election officials also met senior law enforcement officials, among other things, to discuss security arrangements for the upcoming 2026 West Bengal assembly elections. According to sources in the director general’s office, security preparation reports, inter-agency cooperation and security data from earlier elections were requested.
Published – 12 Dec 2025 08:18 IST
