Amid the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise in West Bengal, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) officials informed the Election Commission on Wednesday (12th November) that about 34 lakh Aadhaar Card holders in the State have been found to be ‘deceased’ since the identity card was introduced in January 2009.
In a meeting with the state’s Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Manoj Kumar Agarwal, the UIDAI officials also conveyed to the top election body that around 13 lakh people in the state, who have passed, never possessed Aadhaar cards. Following the meeting, an ECI directive was issued urging all state CEOs to verify voter data with UIDAI authorities and spot and rectify any discrepancies. “The EC has received numerous complaints regarding ghost voters, deceased voters, absentee voters, and duplicate names in the rolls. The UIDAI data on deceased citizens is expected to help us in detecting and removing such entries from the electoral rolls,” a senior official from the CEO’s office reportedly said.
The officer added that if, after the enumeration phase of the SIR, any applicants are found to have submitted enumeration forms while their names have been removed from the Aadhaar database, they can be called by the Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) concerned for verification.
Election officials are also collecting information from banks, as Aadhaar Cards are mostly linked to bank accounts. “Banks have provided data on accounts where KYC updates have not been completed for years, aiding the identification of deceased individuals whose names still appear on voter rolls,” the official stated. The official pointed out that if any ghost, deceased, or duplicate voters are found in the draft roll, it may lead to disciplinary action against the concerned BLOs.
Over 91.19% (6.98 crore) of the enumeration forms were reportedly distributed in West Bengal till Wednesday, as informed by the state CEO’s office. As the BLOs are distributing the enumeration forms, they are also conducting a door-to-door verification based on the 2025 electoral rolls and matching the data provided by applicants in the forms with the 2002 electoral rolls when the exercise was last held.
Despite facing outright opposition from the ruling TMC in West Bengal, the Election Commission is conducting the SIR in the state, which is supposed to go to the polls next year. SIR is a comprehensive electoral roll revision process, which is required to update the voter rolls by removing bogus votes and adding valid votes. However, the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC has been opposing the SIR, fanning the speculations that it is trying to protect the large number of illegal immigrants in the state, who are allegedly form the party’s voter base.
