EC HAS 90 DAYS TO VERIFY 3.6 CRORE MISMATCHED VOTERS IN BENGAL

The EC's task was less strenuous in Bihar, where it had to verify around 2 crore voters.

- SUPROTIM MUKHERJEE

With the rollout of SIR (Special Intensive Revision) in West Bengal just days away, the Election Commission of India is facing a herculean task of verifying 3.6 crore prospective voters in a span of just 90 days.

Given the virulent antagonism by the Trinamool Congress against the implementation of SIR, it will not be an easy task for the poll panel.

The EC's task was less strenuous in Bihar, where it had to verify around 2 crore voters, officials told The Sunday Guardian.

A matching exercise between the 2002 voters' list when the last SIR was conducted and the current one has thrown up alarming statistics. Analysis of the electoral roll published after the 2002 SIR and the one in January 2025 has thrown up a 52% match. West Bengal has a voter base of 7.6 crore, EC officials said. Hence, the 48% extra names in the current voters list translates into 3.6 crores.

A preparatory SIR mapping-matching of the 2002 and 2025 lists-has been completed for all districts except flood-ravaged Jalpaiguri and Darjeeling, which together account for 40 lakh voters.

According to sources, the state-wide average matching percentage is between 50 and 55%. But the situation in North 24-Parganas district is concerning, with only 41% of voter records matching, the sources said. The sources said that since North 24-Parganas borders Bangladesh, this low percentage indicates that more than 50% of voters in this area are new.

Experts consider a 50% new voter rate to be unusually high. Sources highlighted that an even more concerning scenario is of West Burdwan, where the matching percentage is below 40%.

The Election Commission’s massive verification drive, aimed at addressing anomalies in the electoral rolls, was spurred by concerns over the presence of dead voters, duplicate EPIC cards, fake voter entries, and mismatched identities.