Bengal: Over 55L voter names don’t match 2002 list: Election Commission
Kolkata: The Election Commission on Saturday stated that over 55.45 lakh voters’ names have so far not matched with the 2002 voter list, according to the digitization of enumeration forms submitted by booth-level officers (BLOs).
According to sources in the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), West Bengal, among these unmatched electors, the number of dead voters accounts for 23.83 lakh untraceable 10.50 lakh, over 19.35 lakh have shifted out of their registered addresses, while 1.28 lakh have been identified as bogus voters.
The Commission has made it clear that this is an evolving estimate, since the projection reflects the digitisation status till Saturday ( 4 pm) , the exclusion figure may rise with more forms being processed.
West Bengal’s electorate, according to the roll updated on October 27, stands at 7,66,37,529.
“The tally of untraceable voters could shift as some individuals may be located during verification,” said an EC official.
Over 99.43 per cent of the enumeration forms have already been digitised in the state, which amounts to 7,6196871. Over 99.97 per cent of forms have been distributed which amounts to 7,6616840.
State CEO Manoj Agarwal, in the presence of special electoral roll observer and senior officials of his office, held a video conference with district electoral officers for communicating the directions of the Election Commission of India (ECI). ECI had chaired a virtual meeting with the CEOs of 12 poll-bound states and union territories on Friday.
The state CEO directed Kolkata South DEO to fast-track the digitisation process under his jurisdiction. Alipurduar, South Dinajpur, and East Burdwan have achieved 100 per cent digitisation, according to the CEO’s office.
The state CEO has asked the DEOs of 9 districts to fast-track the submission of police reports and postmortem reports where 10 deaths of BLOs have taken place during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise so that compensation can be sought from the ECI.
