Kolkata- The final electoral roll for West Bengal, prepared under the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR), was released on Saturday, revealing that 61,78,245 voters have been removed from the list so far.
The number of deletions is expected to rise further, as the identity documents of nearly 60 lakh voters are still under judicial scrutiny. This adjudication is being carried out by judicial officers appointed by the Election Commission of India, in compliance with directions from the Supreme Court.
Addressing a press conference, Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of West Bengal, Manoj Kumar Agarwal, said the final voters’ list now includes 7,04,59,284 “approved” voters.
“When the SIR began in November last year, the state had 7,66,37,529 voters. This number first dropped to 7,08,16,630 and has now come down to 7,04,59,284 in the final list. This indicates that 61,78,245 names have already been deleted during the revision process,” Agarwal said.
He added that voters who object to the deletion of their names can submit an application first to the District Electoral Officer (DEO) and then to the CEO. Such applications must be filed within 14 days, as per prescribed rules.
Several political parties in the state, particularly the ruling Trinamool Congress, have alleged procedural lapses in the SIR exercise. Acknowledging these concerns, the CEO admitted that some errors had occurred during the process.
“Given the scale of the exercise, these mistakes are minor. Wherever errors were identified, the ECI has taken corrective action,” Agarwal said.
He further clarified that judicial scrutiny of voter documents will continue even after publication of the final list. At present, 501 judicial officers are engaged in the adjudication process. “Based on the outcome, a supplementary voters’ list will be issued in due course,” he added.
The final electoral roll has been published in three categories — “approved”, “under adjudication” and “deleted”.
Voters can access the list on the official websites of the ECI and the CEO, West Bengal. It can also be verified offline through the concerned booth-level officer (BLO) or by visiting the respective polling station, where hard copies have been displayed.
With inputs from IANS