SIR: Bengal voters with ‘weird family-tree’ data come under ECI’s scanner

Kolkata: With the enumeration phase for the online Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in West Bengal ending on Thursday midnight, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has detected several voters with “weird” family-tree data in the course of “progeny mapping”.

Insiders from the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) pointed out that the first category of such voters with “weird family tree data” is those who have applied for retention names in the voters’ list through “progeny mapping” instead of “self-mapping” despite attaining the age of 45 years or above.

“The last time that the SIR was conducted in West Bengal was in 2002. So those who are of the age of 45 years or above would have become voters in 2002, considering that the minimum age for being a voter is 18 years. There lies the question of why such voters who 45 years are or above now did not enrol themselves as voters in 2002, and hence they had to depend on ‘progeny mapping’ instead of ‘self-mapping’ in the ongoing SIR to retain their names in the voters’ list,” a CEO’s office source said.

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Self-mapping voters are those who have names both in the current voters’ list as of October 27, 2025, as well as in the voters’ list in 2002.

On the other hand, progeny-mapping voters are those who do not have their own names but their parents’ names in the voters’ list for 2002.

The second category of such voters with weird family-tree data includes those whose fathers were just 15 years of age or even lower at the time of becoming the fathers of the voters concerned. As per initial estimates of the Commission, the number of such voters is around 12 lakhs.

The third category of such voters includes those whose fathers and mothers have the same name, and the figure on this count, as per initial estimates, is around 13 lakhs.

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The fourth category of such voters is those whose grandfathers were just 40 years old or even lower while becoming the grandfathers, and the figure on this count, as per initial estimates, is around 3.50 lakh.

“In total, the ECI had detected around 1.50 crore voters, whose data, as provided in the enumeration forms, are highly suspicious. All these voters will be summoned for a hearing, and clarifications will be sought about the doubts about their voters’ data,” the CEO’s office source said.

The draft voters’ list will be published on December 16, with which the first stage of the three-stage SIR will come to an end. Thereafter, the phase of hearings on claims and objections will follow. The final voters’ list will be published on February 14, 2026.

Soon after that, the ECI is expected to announce polling dates for the Assembly elections in the state.