KOLKATA: The Election Commission of India (ECI) released the first supplementary list of around 29 lakh out of 60 lakh adjudicated voters in West Bengal on Monday midnight, but the number of eligible and ineligible electors in the rolls remains unclear.
Individuals among the 29 lakh voters whose cases have been cleared by judicial officers till Monday night can check their status to determine whether they can cast their votes in the upcoming Assembly elections scheduled on April 23 and 29 in the state by visiting the ECI websites, electoralsearch.eci.gov.in, voters.eci.gov.in and ceowestbengal.wb.gov.in.
An elector in the state can access voters.eci.gov.in and select West Bengal from the dropdown options. Voters can search their names using the electoral photo identity card (EPIC) number provided by the national poll panel.
They may also search through the “adjudication supplementary list number one” and the “adjudication deleted list number one” links.
After clicking on the adjudication list number one for any of the 294 constituencies, a list of parts is provided. Electors can select the specific part, if known, and download the file.
More than 15 hours later, the ECI and the office of the West Bengal Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) are yet to release the absolute figures of eligible and rejected voters among those included in the supplementary list and those disenfranchised.
Sources in the ECI said that around 10 lakh of the 29 lakh adjudicated voters have lost their voting rights after scrutiny of their documents by judicial officers.
Sources added that the Calcutta High Court has been monitoring the issue related to the 60 lakh voters marked as ‘under adjudication’ in West Bengal following the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the state.
“The list with information related to numbers of eligible and ineligible voters comes from the High Court. We will follow the guidelines of the court,” a senior official of the state CEO office said.
“The mammoth SIR exercise is heavily opaque and goes against the ethos of liberal democracy. Initially, it was projected as a routine electoral process of streamlining electoral rolls with genuine voters, but eventually the drive has become exclusionary, insensitive and dangerous for Dalits and minorities. This process is denting the transparent image of the Commission and weakening institutional values,” said Prof Abdul Matin of Jadavpur University’s International Relations department.
The ECI on February 28 had published the final electoral rolls post-SIR in West Bengal, deleting around 64 lakh absent, shifted, dead and duplicate (ASDD) voters and categorising another 60 lakh under ‘logical discrepancy’ and ‘unmapped’ groups.
Following directives of the Supreme Court, the 60 lakh electors belonging to the two categories were marked as ‘under adjudication’, awaiting clearance from a team of more than 700 judicial officers examining their documents under the monitoring of the High Court.
The ECI on Friday set up 19 appellate tribunals to hear appeals against orders passed by judicial officers currently deciding on the eligibility of 60.06 lakh electors excluded from the final list published after the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls in West Bengal.
Questions have been raised over whether the scrutiny of over 60 lakh voters under adjudication and the subsequent appeals process will be completed before the state goes to the polls on April 23 and 29.