1.3 million vs. 50.89 million. Two knowledge from the Election Fee, each dated January 18, present this discrepancy within the variety of voters despatched notices in a single class as a part of the Particular Intensive Revision (SIR) of West Bengal’s electoral rolls.
After the primary SIR, greater than 1.16 billion voters within the state have been notified of “logical inconsistencies” of their paperwork and required to seem in public hearings to show their eligibility to vote. Public hearings are at the moment being held in Bengal and one of many discrepancies is that greater than six voters have nominated the identical particular person as their dad or mum.
The SIR course of in Bengal, together with eight different states and three union territories, began in October final yr.
On January 18, the EC submitted knowledge by means of an affidavit to the Supreme Court docket in response to the problem to the SIR. Knowledge from the affidavit reveals that round 1.3 million notices have been issued in West Bengal to voters who shared their mother and father’ names with six or extra folks of their submitted paperwork.
Nonetheless, knowledge from the Workplace of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of West Bengal, additionally dated January 18 and accessed by The Indian Specific, reveals that 5.089 million folks fall beneath the identical ‘six or extra descendants’ class.
The CEO graph additionally reveals a district-wise breakdown of individuals recognized as “logically inconsistent” on this class, together with different classes resembling discordant father’s title, age distinction of greater than 50 years with mother and father, and age distinction with grandparents lower than 40 years.
This whole is according to the earlier determine of 1.16 billion (extra exactly 1,169,198,000) voters recognized for notification attributable to a “logical contradiction”.
The EC’s affidavit within the Supreme Court docket supplied knowledge on notifications generated by the SIR for the primary time since its inception.
The EC has revealed the breakdown of notifications issued on the grounds of “6 or extra descendants”, with 2.06 million voters having 6 or extra youngsters, 8,682 having 10 or extra youngsters and 50 having 20 or extra youngsters. Among the many older youngsters, 14 folks introduced that that they had 30 or extra youngsters, 10 folks every had 40 or extra youngsters, 7 folks had 100 or extra youngsters, and a couple of folks turned electors. Over 200 youngsters have been mapped.
The EC has not disclosed the entire worth of all such notifications, however they add as much as roughly 13.26 million.
The EC defended the notification on the idea of “six or extra descendants” and mentioned it wanted to “be sure that particulars of West Bengal nationals will not be misused by means of mapping to names for which there isn’t any proof of parentage”. The EC added: “It was famous that in lots of circumstances electors marked unrelated individuals as mother and father with the intention to set up hyperlinks to earlier SIR electoral rolls.”
West Bengal CEO Workplace knowledge compiled on the identical day put the variety of such notifications at 50.89 million (5,089,519 to be actual), which coincidentally is sort of double the information launched in December 2025. As reported by The Indian Specific on December 17, the CEO had on the time estimated the entire variety of electors falling beneath the ‘six and above’ class at 23.64 million. (23,64,030 to be actual).
Questions despatched to the EC on Monday about what the precise variety of notifications on this class is and whether or not there have been any modifications went unanswered. The Bengal CEO’s workplace declined to remark and officers distanced themselves from the notification, saying it was ready by the EC.
As a part of the SIR, all voters shall be required to supply particulars of themselves or their mother and father within the last central revision of the register. In Bengal’s case, the final such train was in 2002. For the primary time, the EC is introducing software program that flags electors for “logical inconsistencies” as a part of the SIR.
In June final yr, the EC introduced a nationwide SIR, beginning with Bihar, forward of the state meeting elections. In October 2025, it introduced the following part of SIR in 9 states and three UTs, together with Bengal. The ultimate roll shall be printed on February 14 in all states and UTs besides Uttar Pradesh.
In distinction to annual particular abstract revisions, when an current electoral register is up to date by deletions or additions, a central revision requires the electoral register to be created from scratch, one thing that has not been carried out by the EC for the previous 20 years.
The EC’s resolution to implement the SIR and the method adopted, together with requiring all electors to fill out kinds and sure classes to submit documentation to show citizenship-like {qualifications}, are being challenged within the Supreme Court docket.
