Kolkata: The office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) in Bengal has received close to 10 lakh applications for inclusion in the voter list in a little over two months, covering the period from June 1 to August 7. Among all districts, North 24-Parganas has recorded the highest number of requests, with over 1.37 lakh applications. Interestingly, a significant share of the applications has come from areas located along Bengal’s borders with neighbouring states as well as international boundaries.
South 24-Parganas ranks second in the list of voter list applications with over 95,000 requests, followed by Murshidabad with 94,223, Nadia with 62,692, North Dinajpur with 57,200, Malda with 64,328, Cooch Behar with 44,951, Jalpaiguri with 31,043, South Dinajpur with 27,088, and Darjeeling with 24,771 applications.
According to sources in the CEO’s office, around 3.46 lakh applications have been accepted for inclusion, while the rest are under process. In North 24-Parganas, around 46,000 applications have been accepted, while 30,815 have been rejected.
An official in the CEO’s office said that out of these 10 lakh applications, some are for the change of address too.
The CEO’s office further informed that four political parties— namely CPI(M), BJP, Congress and Forward Bloc have submitted their opinion or objections on the exercise of election booth rationalisation in the state.
In a meeting held on August 29, Bengal Chief Electoral Officer Manoj Agarwal set a deadline of September 8 (5 pm) for all political parties to submit their opinions, following discussions with them on the reports regarding booth rationalization that were submitted by the district electoral officers (DEOs) across the state.
At present, Bengal has 80,681 booths, with 13,816 more likely to be added based on DEO reports after the Election Commission reduced the voter cap per booth from 1,500 to 1,200 nationwide. Objections have been raised for about 1,500 booths. The CEO’s office said these will be sent to DEOs for review before a final decision on rationalisation.