Kolkata, February 28 – The final list of voters in West Bengal is set to be published today, with voter names classified into three broad categories: "Approved," "under adjudication," and "deleted."
The "Approved" category will include the names of individuals who have been identified as genuine voters.
The "under adjudication" category will include the names of those voters identified under the "logical discrepancy" category, whose supporting identity documents are pending review by judicial officers appointed for the purpose.
Supplementary lists will be published periodically for these "under adjudication" voters, depending on the progress of judicial review after the publication of the final list of voters.
According to the latest information available, documents of approximately 60 lakh voters identified under the "logical discrepancy" category have been referred for judicial review.
Finally, the "deleted" category will include the names that the Election Commission of India (ECI) had already identified for exclusion from the final list of voters.
Approximately 59 lakh names, under the categories of "deceased," "duplicate," "shifted," and "missing" voters, were deleted in the draft list published last December.
Now, after the publication of the final list later in the day, there will be some indication of the number of deletions. However, the final figure will only be available after the last supplementary list is published.
As of Friday afternoon, the number of "under adjudication" cases in North 24 Parganas stood at 5.90 lakh, the highest among all districts in the state. South 24 Parganas (5.20 lakh), West Midnapore (1,00,000), East Midnapore (80,000), Kolkata Dakshin (78,000), and Kolkata Uttar (60,000) follow.
The ECI has decided to share soft copies of the final list with registered political parties in the state to promote transparency. It has also provided multiple options for voters to check the status of their names in the final list.
Voters can visit the official website of the Election Commission of India – eci.gov.in – and check the status by entering their name along with their EPIC number.
They may also visit the official website of the West Bengal Chief Electoral Officer at ceowestbengal.wb.gov.in.
Another option is to visit the websites of the respective District Electoral Officers (DEOs) to verify names.
In addition to these online options, the ECI has also kept offline verification avenues open. Copies of the final list of voters will be shared with Booth-Level Officers (BLOs), and voters can contact their respective BLOs for verification.
Hard copies of the final list will also be displayed at polling booths across different areas, enabling voters to check their names in person.
