The Election Commission of India (ECI) is likely to remove around 43.30 lakh names from West Bengal’s draft voters' list, scheduled for release on December 16.
The figure is based on trends observed during the ongoing digitisation of enumeration forms submitted by booth-level officers (BLOs).
Officials in the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), West Bengal, cautioned that the projected number may rise once the digitisation process is fully completed. As of October 27, the total number of registered voters in the state stood at 7,66,37,529.
According to insiders, the bulk of the deletions—approximately 21.45 lakh—are names of deceased voters. Another 5.5 lakh entries have been marked as untraceable, while around 15.10 lakh are voters who have shifted residence. Close to one lakh names have been identified as bogus or fake. Officials added that the number of untraceable voters may fluctuate as some individuals could eventually be located.
Until Monday evening, the ECI had also identified 2,208 polling booths in the state that reported no deceased, duplicate, or shifted voters—a finding that sparked political debate.
The BJP questioned how so many booths could show zero discrepancies and demanded a thorough review of the enumeration forms from these locations.
Meanwhile, Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari urged the ECI to conduct an audit of the entries recorded during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) on November 26, 27, and 28, citing an unusually high volume of entries—1.25 crore—submitted over the three days.
