Kolkata: At a time when the state’s population is growing rapidly, the number of new voters aged 18–19 has not increased in proportion. The anomaly has come to the fore during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in West Bengal.
The last Census was conducted in 2011 and, based on proportional projections, the Election Commission estimates that the state’s population has now crossed 10 crore. However, the number of electors in the draft electoral roll published under the SIR on December 16 stands at 70,816,616.
As per the rules, electors whose names did not figure in the draft roll began applying for inclusion by submitting Form 6 from December 16 onwards. Simultaneously, young residents who turned 18 years of age on or before January 1 this year also applied to be enrolled as first-time voters. The application process concluded on January 19.
According to the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), 7,44,277 applications were received through Form 6 after the publication of the draft roll.
“It is not possible at this stage to determine how many applicants under Form 6 are first-time voters. That can be ascertained only after the final roll is published,” a CEO office official said. However, preliminary data with the poll body suggests that the number of young voters in the state has been declining for over a decade. In 2024, 14,30,998 applications were submitted by young people seeking inclusion in the electoral roll.
During the revision ahead of the 2021 Assembly elections, 20.45 lakh young voters were added. In 2014, prior to the Lok Sabha elections, 32.29 lakh Form-6 applications were received, over 90 per cent of which were from first-time voters. At that time, the draft electoral roll had 5.96 crore electors, while over 4.41 lakh names were deleted from the final list. In 2022, more than 16.13 lakh new names were added, followed by 17.83 lakh in 2023.
“It is still unclear what the final number of new voters will be this time. However, based on the volume of Form-6 applications, it appears that the figure may be lower,” the official said.