The Chief Electoral Officer of West Bengal, Manoj Kumar Agarwal, has stated that the Election Commission (ECI) will publish the first supplementary voter list under the Systematic Voters' Registration (SIR) process today. This list will include the names of voters whose documents have been fully verified and are awaiting adjudication.
Election Commission sources said that 27 lakh pending voter records have been settled, with approximately 2 lakh names being processed daily. Once the list is released, voters can raise any objections either online through the ECI Net app or the commission's website, or offline at district or sub-divisional offices.
To prevent any unforeseen incidents after the list's publication, the state government has issued directives to district magistrates, instructing them to implement crowd control measures. Copies of the directive have also been sent to the state police chief and the Kolkata Police Commissioner.
Following the Supreme Court's directives, 19 appeal tribunals have been established across 23 districts, staffed by former judges of the High Court. Voters whose names are excluded from the supplementary list will be able to appeal through these tribunals.
Meanwhile, Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury has accused the Chief Minister of being responsible for complications in the SIR process, alleging that she is politicizing the issue of voter exclusion.
