The Election Commission on Saturday said that the names of 5.46 lakh persons have been deleted from the voter list of West Bengal as part of the special intensive revision of electoral rolls.
Further, a total of 60,06,675 “doubtful and pending” cases have been marked as “under adjudication” in the electoral rolls, the poll panel said. Of these, the names of those approved by judicial officers will be added to the rolls later through a supplementary list, the poll panel said.
The poll panel also said that it did not receive enumeration forms from 58,20,899 voters. These included those who died, were absent, had shifted, had already enrolled and others.
A total of 1,82,036 voters were added to the electoral rolls through Form 6 (form for inclusion) and Form 6A (form for inclusion of overseas electors), the Election Commission said.
West Bengal now has 7.04 crore voters, including the electors in the “under adjudication” list, Chief Electoral Officer Manoj Kumar Agarwal said.
The state’s draft electoral rolls, published on December 16, showed that more than 58 lakh voters were removed after being marked dead, shifted or absent.
After the draft roll was published, notices were issued to about 1.36 crore persons regarding logical discrepancies and 31.68 lakh unmapped voters were served summons, The Hindu reported.
The highest number of pending adjudication cases are in Murshidabad, Malda, and South and North 24 Parganas, with smaller numbers in Jhargram and Kalimpong, The Indian Express notes.
Assembly elections in the state are expected to take place in April or May.
On February 20, the Supreme Court ordered that judicial officers of the rank of district judge or additional district judge be appointed to help complete the special intensive revision of the electoral rolls in the state amid a tussle between the Trinamool Congress government and the Election Commission.
The poll body had announced in June that the special intensive revision of voter rolls would be conducted across the country. In a letter on July 5, it had asked all states to begin pre-revision activities.
Bihar was the first state where the revision was completed ahead of the Assembly elections in November. At least 47 lakh voters were excluded from the final electoral roll.
Concerns had been raised after the announcement in Bihar that the exercise could remove eligible voters from the roll. Several petitioners had moved the Supreme Court against it.
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