KOLKATA: The Election Commission India (ECI) on Wednesday released the first Appellate Tribunals supplementary list on Wednesday, a day before the first phase of elections in West Bengal.
With validations, the 139 voters can cast their votes in the first phase of polling in districts including eight in north Bengal and the remaining from south Bengal.
The 139 names were among the 27 lakh names who were not included in the supplementary lists cleared by judicial officers.
According to the ECI, with fresh inclusions of the 139 voters, 3,60,77,310 electors are eligible to cast votes on Thursday.
The tribunals have cleared 650 names of appellants invalidating 511 names as voters.
Names of the cleared cases will have to be figured in the ECI list on April 22 and April 28 for the first and second phase polls respectively in the state.
Following the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, around 91 lakh voters, including more than 63 lakhs marked as absent, shifted, dead and duplicate (ASDD) and another 27 lakhs not figured in the supplementary after adjudication process cleared by judicial officers, have been deleted from the post-SIR final voters list.
The national poll body uploaded two separate lists on its official website — one of voters whose names were restored following tribunal orders and another of those who remain excluded.
Voters can check the Appellate Tribunals supplementary lists by selecting their respective assembly constituency and booth number on the official portal. For booths where no tribunal decisions were made, no names have been listed.
Individuals who moved the tribunal after finding their names missing from the rolls can also verify their status online using their EPIC numbers. Those whose names have been included in the latest list will be eligible to vote in the first phase of polling scheduled for Thursday, officials said.
Applying its special powers under Article 142 of the Constitution, the Supreme Court had ruled that voters declared eligible by tribunals up to two days before polling would be allowed to vote.
The second phase, covering 142 constituencies, is scheduled for April 29, with another list of eligible voters to be published on April 27 ahead of that round, they said.
Election observers in the city said that no one knows how long the tribunals will take time to clear the mammoth number of 27 lakh deleted voters. The national poll body is also in the dark about how many of them will move the tribunals seeking to retain their voting rights as the issue is being monitored by the Calcutta High Court following directives of the apex court.
Families of appellants describes growing anxiety and a lack of communications across districts.