ECI orders recheck voters identified through progeny-mapping

The Election commission of India has instructed all Booth Level Officers (BLOs) in West Bengal to conduct a meticulous re-verification of voters identified through progeny mapping for inclusion in the upcoming draft voters’ list.

The directive follows a striking discrepancy between the number of voters identified through progeny-mapping and those traced through self-mapping during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.

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According to primary data, the number of existing voters detected through progeny-mapping has touched 3,84,85,166, a figure significantly higher than the 2,94,52,893 voters found through self-mapping.

This trend has raised concern within the ECI, especially since the enumeration phase of the three-stage SIR has already concluded and digitisation of the submitted forms is underway.

Self-mapping refers to voters whose names appear both in the current electoral roll (as of October 27, 2025) and in the 2002 voters’ list—the last time West Bengal undertook a Special Intensive Revision.

In contrast, progeny-mapping identifies individuals who do not appear in the 2002 list themselves but are linked through the presence of their parents’ names in that year’s rolls.

Officials say that while some increase in progeny-mapped voters is natural—given generational expansion—the scale of the difference this year is unusually high, prompting the commission to act with caution.

The office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of West Bengal, has ordered electoral officers to perform a thorough secondary verification before any progeny-mapped voter is included in the draft list scheduled for release on 16 December.

Special roll observers appointed by the ECI have also been tasked with supervising the rechecking process. They will monitor whether BLOs, Electoral Registration Officers (EROs), and Additional Electoral Registration Officers (AEROs) are conducting the verification with the required rigour.

Sources in the CEO’s office reveal that officers have been specifically advised to scrutinise cases where the age gap between voters and their listed parents appears “unusually low” or biologically implausible.

Such anomalies often indicate erroneous linkage, data-entry mistakes, or, in rare cases, attempts at manipulating voter identity. Ensuring the legitimacy of each voter is crucial, especially given the sensitive pre-election environment in the state.

Another focus of the re-verification exercise is the matching of photographs. Officers have been asked to ensure that photographs printed on old enumeration forms correspond accurately with the new images submitted by voters. Any mismatch is to be red-flagged and corrected before the draft list is finalised.

The final voters’ list for West Bengal is scheduled for publication on 14 February, 2026. Once the list is released, the ECI is expected to announce the polling schedule for the much-awaited Assembly elections, likely to be one of the most closely watched electoral contests in recent years.