Draft roll done, 1.9cr in Bengal face notice over mapping, discrepancies | India News

New Delhi: The draft electoral roll for West Bengal published on Tuesday, along with those for four other states/UTs under Phase 2 of special intensive revision (SIR) has 7.1 crore electors after 7.6% (58 lakh) of its 7.6-crore electorate as of Oct 29, 2025, was found to be dead, shifted/absent or enrolled at multiple places. Electoral registration officers (EROs) also found that 28 lakh enumeration forms were returned without mapping with the roll from the last SIR, while ‘logical discrepancies’ were found in forms submitted by 1.65 crore electors.This means around 1.9 crore electors in West Bengal will be issued notices by EROs, to explain the discrepancies and produce verifying documents. A hearing will be held to ascertain the elector’s whereabouts prior to the last SIR. Those who fail to satisfy the ERO will not make it to the final roll.WB roll deletions at 7.6%, Kol North tops with 26%These electors returned their forms with incomplete or incorrect details (the changed rule under SIR Phase 2 did away with the need to submit any documents).TOI has learnt that the ‘logical discrepancies’ include more than six progeny being linked to the same parent in the roll from last SIR, an elector aged more than 45 years who has never enrolled, ‘father name mismatch’, less than 15-year or over 50-year age difference with the parent, and less than 40-year age difference with the grandparent.Though the rate of deletions in West Bengal is 7.6% — comprising 3.2% dead electors, 4.3% shifted/absent and 0.18% enrolled at multiple places — the district-wise deletions ranged from a low of 3.3% in Purba Medinipur to 25.9% in Kolkata North and 23.8% in Kolkata South. Paschim Bardhaman saw 13.1% electors being struck off the district’s rolls.Significantly, the deletions in seven districts bordering Bangladesh are below the state average — only North 24 Parganas and South 24 Parganas reported higher deletions of 9.5%. However, the ‘father name mismatch’ rate in border districts is high: 15.9% in Malda, 15% in Uttar Dinajpur and 12.5% in Murshidabad. Even Darjeeling, bordering Nepal, has 13.8% ‘father name mismatch’ and Kalimpong, which adjoins Darjeeling, 19.9%.As for the other states/UTs where draft rolls were published on Tuesday, Rajasthan saw 41.8 lakh, or 7.6% of its 5.48-crore electorate as of Oct 29, being removed from the rolls. The deletions in both Goa and Puducherry were a little over 1 lakh; Puducherry saw the highest rate of exclusions at 10.1%, bringing down its electorate to 9.18 lakh from 10.2 lakh. Goa had 8.45% of its 11.8 lakh electors struck off the rolls, reducing its electorate to 10.8 lakh.In the small UT of Lakshadweep, around 2.47% of voters were found to be dead, shifted and duplicate electors, shrinking its electorate to 56,384 from 57,813.The list of dead, shifted/absent and duplicate voters has been shared with booth level agents (BLAs) of political parties and published on the CEO website and public offices. Claims and objections can be filed by the elector or BLAs till Jan 15, 2026. The notice phase, involving hearing and verification of eligibility documents, will continue up to Feb 7, 2026.The final roll for the five states/UTs will be published on Feb 14, 2026.