KOLKATA: Chowringhee Assembly constituency in Kolkata has recorded the highest number of uncollectable enumeration forms (EFs) in West Bengal at 71,505, while Jorashanko comes next with 67,578 till Friday night.
The abnormally high number of such forms in assembly areas such as Chowringhee, Jorashanko, Kolkata Port, Ballygunj and Bhawanipore, where Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had contested in a bypoll in 2021 and won, has raised the eyebrows of Election Commission of India (ECI) officials.
The prime reasons for enumeration forms being deemed uncollectable are categorized as ASDD (absent, shifted, dead and duplicate), indicating individuals who are dead, permanently shifted to different location or constituency, untraceable or absent and duplicates who are found to be enrolled in multiple polling stations or have fake entries.
The forms are thus not collected by Booth Level Officers (BLOs) during the ongoing door-to-door exercise of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
EC data indicated that a total of more than 55 lakh voters belonging to the ASDD category have been identified across the state till Friday night. The figure may shoot up further. Sources said that according to figures available so far, the number of dead voters in the state was about 24 lakh till Friday.
The data of dead persons would be available from Janmo Mrityu Tathya/ Registrar General on Births and Deaths and cancellation of ration cards on deaths. Election Registration Officers (EROs) should verify the entries, if any, made by BLOs, for all such cases.
Sources also said that the identification of so many dead, shifted, absent and duplicate voters in the existing electoral rolls indicated that annual revision of rolls had not been carried out thoroughly in the state over the years.