Over 91 lakh voter records under scrutiny ahead of Bengal polls
The Election Commission of India (ECI) has released a detailed breakup of 91.46 lakh “logical discrepancy” cases detected during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in West Bengal, officials said, highlighting large-scale irregularities flagged through progeny mapping.
“Logical discrepancy” cases refer to voters whose electoral records show anomalies in family-tree data, detected during the progeny-mapping exercise — a key component of the three-stage SIR process.
Initially, at the end of the enumeration phase, the ECI had flagged 1.36 crore such cases. However, after scrutiny and evaluation, the figure has been scaled down to 91.46 lakh, officials confirmed.
Discrepancies add to excluded and unmapped voters
The 91.46 lakh “logical discrepancy” cases are in addition to:
58.20 lakh excluded voters, and30 lakh unmapped voters, who failed to establish any linkage with the 2002 electoral roll — either through self-mapping or progeny-mapping.
Officials said the Commission is currently hearing cases related to unmapped voters, after which the logical discrepancy cases will be taken up in the next phase.
Name mismatches form bulk of discrepancies
According to sources in the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), West Bengal, the largest chunk of discrepancies — 51 lakh cases — involves name mismatches with the 2002 voters’ list, the last time a Special Intensive Revision was conducted in the state.
The second-largest category, accounting for 24 lakh cases, involves instances where six or more voters are linked to a single father, raising questions about data integrity.
Age-related anomalies flagged
The ECI has also flagged significant age-related inconsistencies:
- 4.75 lakh voters were found to be just 15 years younger — or even younger — than their recorded fathers
- 8.41 lakh voters showed an age gap of 50 years or more with their fathers
- Three lakh voters had an age difference of 40 years or less with their grandfathers
Officials said such anomalies triggered deeper scrutiny under progeny mapping norms.
TMC demands formal clarification
The Trinamool Congress (TMC) has objected to what it described as “clandestine leaks” of information, stating that the ECI should issue a formal public release detailing the nature and extent of the discrepancies rather than allowing figures to emerge through media reports.
Final voter list due on February 4
The draft electoral roll for West Bengal was published on December 16 last year. The final voters’ list will be published on February 4, following which the Election Commission is expected to announce polling dates for the Assembly elections scheduled later this year.
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