SIR Verification Reveals Mismatch Between 2002 Voter Roll and BLO App

Agnihotri Gupta, MP,  29 Nov 2025, Kolkata: During the ongoing verification of the 2002 voters' list under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), a significant discrepancy is being observed across multiple areas. In several cases, parents' names are clearly present in the 2002 hardcopy, but while digitisation is underway, the same entries are not appearing on the BLO App during mapping. This mismatch has led to varying practices on the ground.

In the Panihati area, BLOs are writing on top of the form that the voter’s details exist in the hardcopy but cannot be found on the BLO App during mapping. A BLO from that area stated: “We have received clear instructions regarding this. We are checking the hardcopy and mentioning that we have verified the linkage.”

In the Dum Dum belt, however, it is being observed that these cases are being treated as if the parent's name is not available in the 2002 list, leading to referrals for hearings, as no separate instruction has been circulated in this area. A BLO from this area said: “As the person has the list provided by ECI, it won’t be much of a problem.” Meanwhile, in Salt Lake, a BLO informed: “We were instructed to attach the photo of the 2002 voters' list’s relevant section as a supporting document.”

These differing responses highlight a lack of uniformity in the verification process. With no standard instruction issued across zones, discrepancies in handling similar cases have become increasingly visible. The situation has been further affected by severe technical delays — the BLO app remained down for nearly 16 hours yesterday, and even on Friday, it is running extremely slow, disrupting form submissions and searches.

The concern has grown after a recent Election Commission update revealed that 26 lakh names in the current West Bengal electoral rolls do not match the 2002 list, indicating how widespread such mismatches may be. Field officials hope that clearer instructions and smoother technical support will be issued soon to avoid panic among applicants.

Meanwhile, the Election Commission’s latest daily bulletin shows that West Bengal has distributed 7,65,05,095 Enumeration Forms—99.79% of its target—and digitised 6,44,48,444 forms, amounting to 84.27%. With only seven days left for the Special Intensive Revision to close, the state remains ahead of the national average of 74.10% digitisation, though field officials warn that repeated BLO app outages could slow down the final phase.