Preparation to remove 70 lakh names from the voter list in West Bengal? Election Commission’s big action before elections

Chennai: The politics of West Bengal is once again filled with turmoil. This time the reason is not any rally or alliance, but a major change in the voter list. The Election Commission (ECI) has launched a massive campaign to make the voter list completely accurate and updated in the state. Special Summary Revision (SSR) of voter list is going on in several phases. Under this process, lakhs of names have been removed so far and there is a possibility that the names of more than 70 lakh voters may be left out in the final list. This action being taken on such a large scale has heated up the political atmosphere.

Around 58 lakh names were removed when the initial draft list was released. After this, in the process of objections and hearing, about 5 lakh more names were removed from the list. Also, about 5 lakh voters did not appear during the hearing, due to which their names are also in danger. Overall, more than 68 lakh names have been removed so far. If the same trend continues in pending cases, this figure may cross 70 lakh. This number can have a big impact on the election calculations of the state.

Strict scrutiny of documents

This time the Election Commission has taken the scrutiny of documents very seriously. According to the report, verification of about 55 lakh names is still pending. Of these, about 30 lakh cases have been sent for re-investigation. The reason given is that in many places the documents were not clear or the correct documents were not presented. The objective of the Commission is that only those names should be included in the final list which are completely certified and correct. Special emphasis is being laid on removing fake, duplicate or incorrect entries.

Deadlines and administrative pressure

Assistant Electoral Registration Officers have been given time till February 21 to complete the verification process. State Chief Electoral Officer Manoj Kumar Aggarwal has indicated that if the work is not completed within the stipulated time, then the Commission can be requested to extend the time.

However, even after the deadline of February 14 passed, many officials did not upload the necessary documents on the portal. Considering this as serious negligence, it has been decided to issue show cause notice to the concerned authorities. It has been clearly stated that once the ‘ERONet’ portal is closed, it will not be opened again.

political reaction

State Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has also expressed concern over this entire incident. He says that the documents of more than one lakh voters could not be uploaded due to technical reasons. According to official figures, around 1.14 lakh people were present on the day of the hearing, but their details could not be recorded as the portal was closed.

When will the final list be released?

The final publication of the voter list is scheduled to take place on February 28. The aim of the Commission is that the list should be completely clean and error-free before the elections. Removing such a large number of names is challenging from the administrative point of view and can prove to be politically important as well. In the coming days, this issue may remain a major topic of discussion in the politics of the state.