Kolkata, Dec 23 (IANS) Three India-Bangladesh bordering districts of West Bengal, namely Murshidabad, South 24 Parganas, and North 24 Parganas, have recorded the maximum number of doubtful voters whose weird family tree data have been detected in ‘progeny mapping’ during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR).

Insiders from the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), West Bengal, stated that of the 1.36 crore doubtful cases detected in progeny mapping, the highest number — at around 4.08 lakh — has been recorded in the minority-dominated and India-Bangladesh bordering Murshidabad district.

Next comes yet another India-Bangladesh bordering district of South 24 Parganas, where the number of such doubtful cases has been recorded at 3.78 lakh. The third is the South 24 Parganas district, also having international borders with Bangladesh, where the figure of such doubtful voters had been recorded at little over two lakh.

The progeny mapping voters are those who did not have their own names but their parents’ names in the voters’ list of 2002, the last time when SIR was conducted in West Bengal.

The CEO’s office sources said that doubtful cases relating to weird family-tee data had been detected while applying a special technology during the course of progeny mapping. One category of such doubtful voters is those who did not have their names on the 2002 list, although they were well above the age of 18 then.

The other categories of such doubtful cases include voters becoming fathers at the age of 15 or below, voters becoming grandfathers at the age of 40 or below, and voters whose fathers and mothers have the same names.

All doubtful cases will be summoned during the hearing sessions on claims and objections on the draft voters’ list starting from December 27, and asked to explain the weirdness in the data. However, they will be summoned in the second phase of the hearing.

In the first phase, “unmapped voters”, that is, voters not having links with the 2002 list either through self-mapping or through progeny mapping, will be summoned for hearings. The number of such “unmapped voters” is a little over 30 lakh.

The draft voters’ list was published on December 16. The final voters’ list will be published on February 14, 2026. Soon after that, the Election Commission of India (ECI) will announce the polling dates for the Assembly elections scheduled next year.

–IANS

src/dpb