In Kolkata on November 30, the Election Commission of India (ECI) said the opening round of West Bengal’s three‑tier Special Intensive Revision (SIR) is almost finished, and that 18.70 lakh names of deceased voters remain on the roll as of the evening on November 29.
According to officials in the Chief Electoral Officer’s office, the ECI has raised its estimate of voters likely to be dropped from the draft list slated for publication on December 9. The new figure is roughly 35 lakh, which includes the 18.70 lakh deceased names as well as duplicates, those who cannot be traced, and voters who have permanently shifted to other states.
“The figure follows the trend from the data we’ve digitised so far,” an insider from the CEO’s office explained. “As of Saturday evening, we had digitised 88.50 percent of the enumeration forms collected. When the digitisation is complete, the number of names that will be removed will be larger still. The full picture will emerge once the draft voters’ list is released on December 9.”
The electoral roll lists a total of 766,37,529 voters in West Bengal as of October 27, 2025.
The first round of the SIR began on November 4, with the entire process expected to wrap up by the end of March next year. It has not been undertaken in the state since 2002.
Under the SIR protocol, voters whose names—or those of their parents—were on the 2002 roll are automatically considered valid. Others must present any one of the 11 identity documents earmarked by the ECI to retain their names. Although the Aadhaar card is now the 12th document listed, the commission has clarified that holders of Aadhaar still need to provide one additional document from the original 11.
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