Bengal SIR: With just a few days remaining in the West Bengal Assembly election, the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Monday midnight released its final Supplementary List following the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls. As per the data shared by the poll body, 54 per cent of the total 60,06,675 names under adjudication have been "deleted". The total number of voters in the poll-bound state has fallen from 7.66 crore to 6.77 crore post the revision process.
As per the fresh data of poll body, approximately 91 lakh people have been removed from the voter lists, a significant fall of 11.62 per cent. The list suggests that the border districts, including Cooch Behar, Uttar Dinajpur, Malda, Murshidabad, Nadia, and North and South 24 Parganas are among the regions where a large number of voters were deleted.
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The data suggested that Nadia district, which has a significant Matua population, witnessed the highest percentage of deletions. The names of 70.33 per cent of the applicants of Hooghly district were deleted following the review process, followed by Purba Bardhaman, North 24 Parganas and Paschim Bardhaman.
The adjudication cases were high in the minority-dominated districts such as Malda, Murshidabad, North Dinajpur and South 24 Parganas. However, these regions witnessed fewer deletions in terms of percentage, the poll body informed. However, the number of voters deleted in these districts still remains high.
Earlier on Monday, the Supreme Court did not accept a plea to extend the time before the voter list was completely frozen. The review process was carried out by 705 judicial officers under the supervision of the apex court after the TMC and Congress raised objections.
"People whose names have been deleted after adjudication can further challenge this before tribunals," a senior ECI official was quoted as saying by the Indian Express.