Kolkata, March 15 With the Election Commission announcing the assembly poll schedule on Sunday, stating that elections in West Bengal will be held on April 23 and 29, the fate of over 60 lakh "under adjudication" electors, whose voting eligibility is currently under judicial scrutiny, hangs in the balance, observers say.
The announcement of the two-phased polls in Bengal, without the supplementary lists of the state's electoral rolls getting published so far, there's little clarity on whether those who are found eligible post-adjudication will be able to exercise their franchise in the current state elections.
According to commission rules, voters who are enrolled in electoral rolls published before the last day of withdrawal of nominations of candidates are eligible to exercise their franchise.
According to the announced poll schedule, the nomination withdrawal deadline for Bengal is April 9 and 13 for the first and second phase, respectively.
Effectively, that means supplementary lists will have to be published for the areas covered under the two phases prior to those deadlines.
Some 700 judicial officers from Bengal and the adjacent states of Jharkhand and Odisha, appointed by the Calcutta High Court under Supreme Court orders, are currently racing against time to dispose of the mammoth number of cases flagged by the 8,000-odd EC-appointed micro-observers.
The EC justified the deployment of these micro observers, essentially central government employees, as a special case for West Bengal on the grounds of massive backlogs in scrutinising enumeration forms by EROs and AEROs before the publication of the final rolls on February 28.
These appointments were subsequently challenged before the apex court by TMC and others, in the wake of which the court directed judicial officers to get the job done.
Till reports last received from commission sources, a little over 15 lakh of the 60.06 lakh cases have been disposed of in the first fortnight, leaving another 45 lakh cases yet to be scrutinised.
Judging by the current rate of case disposal, the officers may need another 45 days to dispose of all cases, which would then exceed the nomination withdrawal deadline.
While there is no clarity on the fate of electors who could be left out of the poll process, the Supreme Court has also directed the formation of judicial tribunals to address the cases of aggrieved electors who may be deleted from the rolls.
"According to the orders of the Supreme Court, the learned judges, working under the direction of the High Court of Calcutta, will be bringing out the supplementary lists. And as and when the lists and names come out, they shall be included with the existing electors," CEC Gyanesh Kumar said during the announcement of the poll schedule.
Referring to the figure of eligible voters published in the state's final rolls, Kumar said that currently 6.44 crore voters will be able to exercise their voting rights in Bengal, sharply bringing down the number from 7.66 crore electors to whom enumeration forms were originally distributed.
While almost all political parties except the BJP have critically targeted the EC for this, with state chief minister Mamata Banerjee personally arguing the case before a bench of the Chief Justice of India, the CPI(M) on Sunday additionally alleged the announcement of poll schedule ensured the curtailing of rights of those who are currently under the commission's scanner to also contest the polls.
"The Constitution guarantees rights to citizens of this country to contest elections. With over 60 lakh people still under the commission's doubtful voter list, they will lose the opportunity to submit candidature, even if they appear in the supplementary list published later. The nomination form mandates them to state their voter details in terms of their part and serial number in the electoral rolls, which they cannot," Md Salim, secretary of CPI (M)’s Bengal unit, argued.
The unique scenario in which elections are likely to take place in Bengal seems to have left poll experts flummoxed.
"This seems to a case crying for judicial intervention. But with the Supreme Court itself monitoring affairs, I really have no idea how this will turn out in the end," an observer said.