ECI estimates deletion of 6.61 lakh voters as Bengal SIR hearings end; Final electoral roll on February 28

Kolkata: The Election Commission’s estimation has revealed that names of another 6.61 lakh voters may be deleted, most of them linked to nearly 5 lakh voters who failed to appear for hearings. The hearing process that began on December 27 concluded in Bengal on Saturday. The final electoral roll is scheduled to be published on February 28. According to Commission sources, information received from districts till around 2 pm showed that a significant number of voters who were issued notices failed to turn up at the hearing centres.

District-wise data showed that the highest number of hearing absentees were from North 24-Parganas, where about 1.38 lakh voters did not appear despite receiving notices. South 24-Parganas, with around 46,000 absentees, figured second in the list, followed by Kolkata ( South and North), where 24000 skipped the hearings. In Kalimpong, around 440 voters were reported absent. According to sources in the apex poll body, about 4.98 lakh voter names are being removed due to non-appearance, while around 1.63 lakh names are being deleted after being identified as bogus voters. Hence, the provisional total of deletions stands at 6.61 lakh. A senior official of the Commission said that the exact number of absentees may go up with the compilation process still on. State Chief Electoral Officer Manoj Agarwal said that those whose names will be absent from the final electoral roll may apply to the concerned District Electoral Officer for reconsideration within 5 days. If the concerned application is rejected at the DEO level, he / she can apply to the CEO within 5 days. “The reasons for exclusion of names will be communicated to the concerned elector by the Commission,” said Agarwal. He claimed that Bengal has witnessed the best SIR exercise among the poll-bound states and Union Territories in the country.

During the month-and-a-half-long process, notices were issued to around 1.52 crore voters. Of these, about 32 lakhs were identified as ‘unmapped’, while nearly 1.20 crore were called due to discrepancies in their details. It may be mentioned that the names of 58 lakh voters did not figure in the draft electoral roll published by the poll body. The ‘unmapped’ category comprised voters who had links with the 2002 roll but were summoned due to data inconsistencies. Commission sources said that till 2 pm on Saturday, around 5 lakh voters among those served notices did not attend hearings. Verification of documents submitted by voters who appeared at the hearings will continue till February 21, and hence the number of deletions may rise with progress in scrutiny, particularly in cases where voters either remained absent or where submitted information was found to be doubtful. In another development, it was learnt that the Election Commission has set February 17 as a deadline for the West Bengal government to ensure that FIRs are registered against four officers over the alleged inclusion of ‘ghost’ voters in the electoral rolls in two districts, an official said on Saturday. The commission had earlier ordered the suspension of two electoral registration officers (EROs) and two assistant electoral registration officers (AEROs) from Baruipur Purba in South 24 Parganas and Moyna in Purba Medinipur districts over alleged inclusion of “fake” or “ghost” voters in the electoral rolls. It had also directed the authorities that FIRs be lodged at the police stations concerned against them.Earlier, the commission had instructed the district election officers (DEOs) concerned to lodge FIRs against the four officers and one staff member over alleged irregularities, including illegal inclusion of names in the West Bengal voters’ list. In response, the state government had informed the commission that it had suspended the four officers and initiated departmental proceedings, seeking additional time before filing FIRs.