46 lakh names identified, likely to be excluded from voters’ list

Kolkata: Over 46 lakh names in West Bengal have already been identified for exclusion in the voters’ list as per the latest trend available during the digitisation of the enumeration forms in the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) by the Election Commission of India (ECI) that started from November 4.

The total number of names found eligible for exclusion from the voters’ list currently stands at 46.30 lakh, and this is as per the trend of the digitisation of the enumeration forms completed till Tuesday evening.

The same figure was 43.50 lakh as per the trend of digitisation completed till Monday evening. This means that a total of 2.70 lakh names have been included in the list of names eligible for exclusion from the voters’ list within 24 hours.

Insiders from the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), West Bengal, have said that of the 46.20 lakh names found eligible for exclusion till Tuesday evening, around 22.28 lakh names come under the “deceased voters” category.

A total of around 6.40 lakh voters have been identified in the “untraceable voters” category, indicating that, despite repeated knocks, booth-level officers (BLOs) were unable to deliver the enumeration forms to their doorsteps.

Around 16.22 lakh voters have been identified under the “shifted voters” category, meaning they have permanently shifted elsewhere for reasons such as marriage and jobs.

Finally, around 1.05 lakh voters have been identified under the “duplicate” voters’ category, which means voters having simultaneous enrolment at two places.

The total number of voters in West Bengal, as per the electoral roll as of October 27, is 7,66,37,529.

On Tuesday evening, the ECI informed that the number of booths in the state identified as not having a single deceased voter or duplicate voter (having names in two places) or any voter who has shifted elsewhere had drastically changed and reduced within just 24 hours from the figure recorded on Monday evening.

On Monday, the ECI had identified 2,208 polling booths in West Bengal that do not have a single deceased voter, duplicate voter or shifted voter.

Sensing absurdity in this phenomenon, the ECI sought reports on the matter from the District Magistrates (also the District Electoral Officers) concerned.

Within 24 hours, the District Magistrates submitted fresh reports to the ECI on Tuesday, where the new number of electoral booths not having a single deceased voter or duplicate voter, or shifted voter has come down to 480.