Bengal SIR: 1.14L voter docus pending upload; TMC seeks portal reopen

Kolkata: Fresh complications have surfaced in West Bengal’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise, with 1,14,772 voter documents still pending for upload even after the hearing period ended on February 14, while a five-member Trinamool Congress delegation on Wednesday met Chief Electoral Officer Manoj Agarwal alleging that the sudden shutdown of the portal that day has put a large number of genuine voters at risk of disenfranchisement.

According to available figures, North 24-Parganas tops the list with 20,707 pending documents, followed by Kolkata North (15,031), Howrah (10,499), Cooch Behar (10,479) and South Dinajpur (10,285). More than 5,000 documents are also pending in Darjeeling, North Dinajpur, Hooghly and South 24 Parganas, while uploads have been completed in Malda, Jhargram and Kalimpong.

The Trinamool delegation — comprising Partha Bhowmick, Bratya Basu, Mahua Moitra, Chandrima Bhattacharjee and Pratima Mondal — demanded that the portal be reopened till February 21 to facilitate uploading of the remaining documents.

Bhowmick said that as per Election Commission norms, if documents are not uploaded after a hearing, the concerned person’s name will not be included in the electoral roll. He alleged that Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) and Assistant Electoral Registration Officers (AEROs) failed to upload documents of a large number of electors due to paucity of time before the portal was shut around 3 pm on February 14. “Why should these voters be forced to apply afresh through Form 6 for inclusion of their names in the voter list?” he asked.

The delegation, referring to the issue of Special Roll Observer (SRO) C Murugan’s WhatsApp instructions, alleged that such directions are legally untenable, administratively improper, with the Supreme Court having expressly directed that operational instructions relating to the electoral process must not be issued through informal platforms such as WhatsApp.

The delegation claimed that the CEO has assured them of an inquiry into this matter.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday alleged irregularities in the revision process, claiming that although hearings were to continue till February 14 in accordance with directions of the Supreme Court of India, the Commission’s portal login was abruptly blocked that afternoon, preventing the upload of names of verified voters, which she termed a violation of court orders and part of a larger conspiracy to undermine India’s federal structure.

A few days earlier, Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar had instructed officials during a virtual meeting to complete uploads within the stipulated deadline, but the exercise remains incomplete.

The Election Commission of India had directed EROs and AEROs to clearly record reasons for rejecting applications, though allegations have surfaced that this norm was not followed in several cases. The disposal process has also been slow, with technical glitches affecting the system in some areas.

An EC official said that if documents are not uploaded after a hearing, the person’s name will not be included in the electoral roll, adding that if an affected person files a complaint against the concerned ERO or AERO, action will be taken after an inquiry.

Electors whose names are excluded despite attending hearings and submitting documents may seek reconsideration before the concerned District Electoral Officer within five days and, if rejected there, may appeal to the Chief Electoral Officer within five days thereafter.

Meanwhile, the unusual data posted by voters, which were cleared and uploaded by poll officers of the state during the verification process of voters who were summoned for hearings on grounds of logical discrepancies or for remaining unmapped during the enumeration phase, have raised red flags in the Commission’s top brass, officials reportedly said.

In the Panskura Paschim Assembly Constituency in East Midnapore district, SIR observers allegedly unearthed an uploaded enumeration form (EF) of an elector named Sheikh Rajesh Ali whose father’s name has been enrolled as Bhuban Chandra Bera.

Tracing back the corresponding EFs, officials found that Bhuban Chandra Bera has been listed as father to another voter, Bijoy Krishna Bera. The error, officials said, was an oversight of the ERO concerned and would have stayed that way in the final rolls, had it not been identified during the super check.

In Magrahat in South 24-Parganas district, an elector submitted his birth certificate issued by the local public health centre under the state health department which certifies his date of birth as October 30, 1990.

Shockingly, the date of registration of birth of the voter has been mentioned as August 23, 1990, preceding the actual date of birth, as mentioned in the certificate, by 68 days.

“It will be difficult for us to ascertain whether it was a clerical error on part of the certificate issuing authority or filed with malafide intention by the elector. Nevertheless, the document should not have been accepted by the poll officer concerned in the first place, let alone uploaded it,” an EC official is learnt to have said.