UIDAI tells Election Commission that more than 34 lakh Aadhaar holders found dead in Bengal

UIDAI officials informed the Election Commission that around 34 lakh Aadhaar card holders have been found ‘dead’ in West Bengal since the identity card was introduced in January 2009.

UIDAI officials also told the Election Commission that around 13 lakh people in the state never had Aadhaar cards but have since died.

The information was shared during a meeting between UIDAI (Unique Identification Authority of India) officials and state Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Manoj Kumar Agarwal, amid the ongoing counting process of Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter lists.

The meeting followed the Election Commission’s directive asking all state CEOs to coordinate with Aadhaar officials to verify voter data and identify discrepancies.

“The Election Commission has received several complaints regarding ghost voters, dead voters, absentee voters and duplicate names in the rolls. The UIDAI data on deceased citizens is expected to help us detect and remove such entries from the voter rolls,” a senior official in the CEO office said on Wednesday.

He said, after the counting stage and publication of the draft roll on December 9, if applicants are found submitting forms with names removed from the Aadhaar database, they may be called by the concerned Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) for verification.

Election officials said they are also collecting information from banks as Aadhaar is linked to most of the accounts.

“Banks have provided data on accounts where KYC update has not been completed for years, thereby helping in identifying deceased persons whose names are still present in the voter list,” the official said.

The SIR process is currently underway across West Bengal to weed out dead and fake voters. Booth level officers (BLOs) are conducting door-to-door verification by distributing enumeration forms based on the 2025 voter list and subsequently mapping the data provided by applicants in those forms with the voter list of 2002, when the process was last conducted.

According to the information received from the CEO office, till 8 pm on Wednesday night, more than 6.98 crore (91.19 percent) census forms have been distributed in the state.

Officials said the presence of ghost, dead or duplicate voters in the draft rolls could lead to disciplinary action against the BLO responsible.

He informed that Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) have been instructed to ensure accuracy and vigilance in the verification process.