Kolkata, March 18 – Over 34 per cent of voters in West Bengal, whose judicial adjudication process had been completed by Wednesday night, have been found “ineligible” to be on the electoral rolls.
An insider from the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of West Bengal, said that of the 60 lakh voters in the state whose cases were referred for judicial adjudication after being identified under the “logical discrepancy” category, the process had been completed for 23.30 lakh voters so far.
“Out of these 23.30 lakh cases, for which the process of judicial adjudication has been completed, eight lakh voters have been identified as ineligible. This means that over 34 per cent of the voters whose adjudication process has been completed have been identified by judicial officers as ineligible,” the CEO office source said.
The final electoral roll in West Bengal, excluding those 60 lakh cases referred for judicial adjudication, was published on February 28. As per the directions of the Supreme Court, supplementary lists will be published in phases based on the progress of the adjudication process.
The first supplementary list in this regard is expected to be published later this week. At present, a total of 732 judicial officers, including 100 each from neighbouring Jharkhand and Odisha, are working to complete the adjudication process.
Meanwhile, in a late evening development, the Election Commission of India (ECI) issued a notification deputing Murli Dhar, a 2005-batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer of the West Bengal cadre and current Commissioner of Bidhannagar Police Commissionerate, as a police observer for Tamil Nadu, which is also heading for Assembly polls this year.
The two-phase polls in West Bengal will be held on April 23 and April 29. In the first phase, polling will be held for 152 Assembly constituencies, and in the second phase, for 142 constituencies.