Names of 45% of ‘discrepancy’ voters found in West Bengal SIR may be cut ahead of assembly polls

ALabialise 45% of the 6 trillion voters placed below a controversial logical variance category are likely to be deleted after adjudication, West Bengal chief electoral officer Manoj Kumar Agarwal said on Monday, hours before rolls were frozen for the first phase of the assembly polls later this month.The 19 tribunals — which were set up to hear the appeals of the people rejected by judicial officers during the adjudication process — are yet to become fully operational. The two Muslim-majority districts of Murshidabad and Malda have the highest number of voters under adjudication. The Supreme Court has refused to give a deadline to the tribunals.“Judicial officers, appointed by the Calcutta high court, would dispose of all the six million cases, which had come under adjudication, by Monday night. Of these, around 45% were likely to be deleted,” Agarwal said in the evening.This will result in around 2.7 million names being deleted after adjudication.Bengal goes to the polls in two phases — 152 seats on April 23 (for which nomination and rolls closed on Monday) and 142 seats on April 29 (for which nomination and rolls will close on April 9).The electoral roll published on February 28 listed 70.46 million voters after the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), which lasted nearly four months. At that point, 6.18 million names had been deleted.A senior poll officer said the phase 1 seats held 3.2 million of the six million ‘logical discrepancy’ voters. With the rolls closed for phase 1, roughly 45% of these 3.2 million people – around 1.44 million people – will be unable to vote in the assembly polls.This brings the total number of names deleted from the rolls during SIR in Bengal to 7.62 million as on Monday.Another 2.8 million people who reside in the phase 2 seats have 2 more days before the rolls close on April 9.Agarwal made it clear that people who failed adjudication and whose appeals were pending before a tribunal will not be able to vote this time.“Monday was the last day for submission of nominations by candidates of political parties. The electoral roll for the first phase of the election would be frozen at midnight. There can be no further addition or deletion of names. Voters whose names have been deleted after adjudication can appeal before the Supreme Court-appointed tribunals. They, however, won’t be able to cast their votes this year as the list for the first phase will be frozen at midnight. If the appellate tribunal clears their name, their names would be enrolled again, and they can vote in future elections,” said Agarwal.The Election Commission published supplementary lists over the past two weeks comprising the names of voters whose cases were disposed of by judicial officers. Till Monday evening, the poll panel had published 12 names. The EC informed the Supreme Court on Monday afternoon that the last supplementary list will be published at midnight.“The adjudication process at the first level is largely complete, though technical issues—particularly delays in uploading digitally signed orders—created bottlenecks in the final stages,” said the same poll officer cited above.“The electoral roll has been frozen according to statutory provisions after the last date of nominations. The adjudication process has been carried out as per due procedure, and only those cases decided within the prescribed timeline could be reflected in the final roll for this phase,” the officer added.EC has constituted 19 appellate tribunals across West Bengal, appointing retired judges to hear appeals against orders of judicial officers. On Monday, West Bengal CEO appointed senior IAS officer Vibhu Goel as the additional CEO, entrusting him with crucial coordination between the ECI and the judges of the appellate tribunals.“The appellate tribunals are yet to start functioning. The Supreme Court has requested the chief justice of the Calcutta high court to constitute a team of three former senior-most chief justices or judges to prescribe a procedure that would be mandatorily followed by all tribunals. A software also needs to be developed based on the SOP. The tribunals are likely to start functioning soon,” said a second senior EC official.Around four to five claims by voters whose names were deleted after adjudication were heard on an urgent basis after they were referred by the Supreme Court, the official cited above added.Officials said that on Sunday, former Calcutta high court chief justice TS Sivagnanam, who was heading the appellate tribunals, directed the poll panel to immediately restore the name of Mehtab Sheikh, a Congress candidate from Murshidabad. His name was deleted after adjudication.