Technical glitches behind 3.1 million ‘unmapped’ voters in Bengal roll revision, says EC

Election Commission said that due to “incomplete conversion” of PDF of 2002 electoral roll data to CSV, linkage could not be fetched in BLO app.

Many people in West Bengal could not be linked to the base 2002 voter roll during the ongoing special intensive revision (SIR) due to glitches in the app used for the contentious exercise, the election commission has admitted, adding that the number of these so-called unmapped voters could dip as a result.

The 3.1 million people were called for hearings - which began on Saturday – to verify their documents. (PTI)

The number of people who could not show either their own name or the names of their parents or grandparents in the rolls of 2002 – the last time the SIR was conducted in Bengal – stood at 3.1 million when the draft voter roll was published on December 16. To be sure, this number is separate from the 5.82 million names that have been dropped from the draft roll already.

The 3.1 million people were called for hearings - which began on Saturday – to verify their documents.

“It has been reported from the districts that due to incomplete conversion of PDF of 2002 electoral roll data to CSV, linkage could not be fetched in BLO app in respect of many electors. These electors are marked unmapped, though they have either self or progeny linkage with the hard copy of 2002 electoral roll as authenticated and provided by the District Election Officer (DEOs) and published in the website of Chief Electoral Officer of West Bengal (WBCEO),” stated a letter sent by the state’s additional chief electoral officer to all district electoral officers on Saturday.HT has seen a copy of the letter.

“The number of unmapped voters will definitely come down after this,” said Manoj Kumar Agarwal, West Bengal’s chief electoral officer.

The admission sparked a political battle in the state, which goes to the polls in the summer.

“EC is working on the orders of the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party). The BJP has set a target for the poll panel to delete around 15 million voters from the electoral roll. When the poll panel’s tricks get exposed, they call its technical glitches and other things. The people of Bengal are being unnecessarily harassed...” said Trinamool Congress leader Arup Chakraborty.

The BJP hit back.

“ECI is doing its job. The political parties, through their booth-level agents, should assist the poll panel. The voter list is being cleaned up. If anyone has any grievances or complaints, they may approach the ECI. If they are not satisfied even after that, they may move the Supreme Court,” said BJP state president Samik Bhattacharya.

The exercise began in Bengal on November 4 and the enumeration phase ended on December 11. The draft rolls were released on December 16.

EC data recorded 76.64 million electors in West Bengal as on October 27, 2025. Of this, 70.82 million had their electoral forms digitised by December 13 (92.4%), but forms could not be collected from 5.82 million (7.6%). The reason for the 5.82 million uncollected forms was death in the case of 2.42 million electors, untraceable/absent electors for 1.22 million, permanently shifted electors for 1.99 million, already enrolled electors for 0.14 million, and a miscellaneous “others” category for 0.06 million.

Among the 70.82 million digitised, 38.28 million (54.1%) mapped themselves to the 2002 roll through their relatives, 29.39 million (41.5%) mapped themselves to the 2002 roll, and 3.1 million (4.4%) had no mapping to the 2002 roll.

It is these 3.1 million who are categorised as “unmapped” and who were called for hearings.

“The number of unmapped voters is likely to drop from what was initially thought to be 3.1 million. It has been found that there are many voters who couldn’t be mapped due to technical glitches. There is a section of voters who couldn’t be mapped as neither their own name nor their parents’ and grandparents’ names were there in the 2002 list. They remain unmapped and will be called for hearing. But there is also a section whose names or their parents’ and grandparents’ names appear in the hard copies of the 2002 list, but were not showing on the BLO app. They couldn’t be mapped because of the technical glitch. These voters won’t be labelled as unmapped anymore,” said a senior poll panel official, requesting anonymity.

To be sure, EC had started sending letters to these unmapped voters. Unmapped voters were supposed to come for the hearing with documents to prove their authenticity.

Though hearing notices may have been generated from the system, these electors may not be called for hearing. Notices so generated in such cases may not be served and kept with the Electoral Registration Officer (of that constituency),” the letter sent to the DEOs said.

It also states that an extract of the 2002 electoral roll may be sent to the concerned DEO for verification. After verification by the DEO, the cases may be disposed of. BLOs have been asked to visit such ‘unmapped’ electors and take a photo with them and upload them.

“In case where discrepancies are detected later on with the hard copy of 2002 electoral roll by the ERO or additional ERO or on complaints, the concerned electors may be called for hearing after serving notices,” the letter said.

Hearing of unmapped voters began in the state from Saturday. A political slugfest erupted on the first day after the poll panel called at least four family members of TMC MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, including her mother, sister and two sons, for hearing.

“If the EC asks for some documents, we will produce them. But I have been in politics for the last 50 years. If the BJP can hit my family like this, then imagine what would happen to a common person,” said Dastidar.

“The enumeration forms clearly show that there is no linkage. So, they are called for hearing as per relevant provisions of the notification of ECI,” the poll panel wrote on X.