The Election Commission of India is set to publish the draft electoral roll for West Bengal on Tuesday, revealing a list of 7,08,16,621 voters. This follows a special intensive revision process where enumeration forms were issued to 7,66,37,519 individuals. A significant number of 58,20,898 names classified as ASDD—Absent, Shifted, Duplicate, or Dead—have been omitted from this draft publication.
Accessing the Draft Roll and the ASDD List
Officials stated that the draft Special Intensive Revision (SIR) roll will be available on the official websites of the Election Commission, the Chief Electoral Officer of West Bengal, and district election officers from Tuesday afternoon. Voters can search for their names using their name and EPIC number. Physical copies will also be displayed at the offices of District Election Officers (DEOs), Sub-Divisional Officers (SDOs), Block Development Officers (BDOs), municipalities, panchayats, and polling stations.
A separate list containing the names of the 58.2 lakh ASDD voters has been provided to Booth-Level Officers (BLOs) and Booth-Level Agents (BLAs). This list is expected to be displayed at most polling stations for public scrutiny.
Correction Window and Hearing Process
Once the draft is published, the public will have the opportunity to submit claims or objections until January 15, 2026. The subsequent process of hearing questionable cases, verification, and disposal of these claims and objections will continue until February 7, 2026.
An EC official highlighted that among the 7.08 crore names on the draft list, close to 30 lakh are "unmapped" voters. This means their names, and those of their family members, were not present in the voters' list published back in 2002. All such unmapped voters will be called for a hearing, with notices being sent after Tuesday. Additionally, a section of the roughly 1.7 crore electors whose submitted forms had discrepancies will also be required to attend hearings.
Procedure for Excluded Voters and BLO Insights
Voters whose names do not appear on the draft list will need to apply afresh using Form 6 (application for new voters). They must submit this form along with any one of the 13 documents notified by the EC. The Commission accepts Aadhaar as proof of identity but not as proof of citizenship. Therefore, if an individual submits Aadhaar, they must provide an additional document from the remaining 12 as proof of citizenship.
On Monday, the draft roll was uploaded to the BLO app, allowing officers to check the status of electors in their assigned areas. Several BLOs shared insights with TOI, indicating that between 100 to 150 names were struck off from each part list. A BLO from Maniktala reported that out of 721 electors in his part, 137 names were omitted, primarily falling under untraceable, shifted, dead, or unmapped categories. A BLO from Baghajatin stated that only 652 out of 832 names from his initial list made it to the draft roll.
EC officials also acknowledged that the digitised draft list might contain minor errors like misspelt names, which will be corrected during the claims and objections period.
