ECI to Launch AI Facial-Matching System to Purge Fake Voters in Bengal SIR

The Election Commission of India has launched an unprecedented AI-powered offensive against bogus, duplicate, and deceased entries during West Bengal’s ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, marking the first time in the country’s history that large-scale facial recognition technology is being deployed state-wide to detect and eliminate electoral fraud before the final voter list is published.

Senior officials confirmed on Tuesday that sophisticated artificial intelligence algorithms will systematically scan and cross-match millions of voter ID photographs stored in the Electoral Registration Officers’ database, instantly flagging any face that appears even fractionally identical across multiple constituencies, assembly segments, or districts, a common method used by political operatives to inflate voter numbers through ghost entries.

The move was triggered by an alarming spike in formal complaints, particularly from migrant labourers working in Kerala, Gujarat, Maharashtra, and southern states, who discovered upon returning home that their photographs had been lifted from old records or social media and illegally enrolled as voters in distant Bengal constituencies without their knowledge or consent, a malpractice that officials say reached industrial proportions ahead of the 2026 assembly polls.

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Despite the cutting-edge technological intervention, the Election Commission has made it clear that booth-level officers (BLOs) remain the ultimate gatekeepers of electoral integrity; every single Form 6, 7, 8, or 8A submission, even when routed through booth-level agents (BLAs), will require the BLO to personally visit the household, photograph the voter on the spot using a Commission-approved mobile application, obtain a fresh signature or thumb impression, and collect a handwritten declaration certifying that the form was filled in the voter’s presence.

To enforce zero tolerance, the Commission has introduced draconian accountability protocols: if any fake, duplicate, or deceased voter slips through the verification net and appears on the final electoral roll published on 5 January 2026, the concerned booth-level officer will face immediate departmental proceedings, suspension, and possible criminal prosecution, sending a clear message that negligence or complicity at the grassroots level will no longer be shielded under the excuse of workload or political pressure.

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