Voter list row: 12 lakh on Bengal’s 2nd supplementary list, but no clarity on who made the cut

KOLKATA: Election Commission published Bengal's second supplementary voters' list around 11pm on Friday.

Sources said the list has around 12 lakh names in two sections, one for restored voters and the other for those deleted. The disenfranchised can appeal within 15 days, online or offline, before appellate tribunals.

The list can be accessed on the EC website,CEO website and the ECINET app. Copies of the list will also be displayed at polling stations and available with DEOs, DMs, SDOs and BDOs.

Till Friday, judicial officials have disposed of around 37 lakh of the 60 lakh cases under adjudication. The first supplementary list had 10 lakh names.

Speaking on the second list, an EC official said, "We have received 12 lakh names with e-signature and published them. We may publish supplementary lists daily from tomorrow if Calcutta High Court approves."

EC sources said the rejection rate after judicial review was 35%-40%.

On Friday evening, Calcutta HC Chief Justice Sujoy Paul chaired a meeting on the publication of the second supplementary list with the chief secretary, home secretary, DGP, Kolkata CP, CEO Manoj Agarwal and special roll observer Subrata Gupta.

Trinamool on Friday filed an appeal before Chief Justice Sujoy Paul seeking daily publication of supplementary lists.

Trinamool told the CJ that the first list only had the names of 749,863 individuals, though judicial officers had by then disposed of 27 lakh cases. There was no information about the remaining 20-lakh odd names.

Trinamool also said the fate of 11 of its candidates who are under adjudication was still unknown.

The party flagged the narrow window for the disposal of appeals against exclusion of names by judicial tribunals, referring to the April 7 deadline for the "locking" of voters' lists for the 152 constituencies that will go to the polls in the first phase of the assembly elections on April 23. "This makes the right to appeal useless. Even if an official later finds that a deletion was wrong, there will be no real help once the lists are locked," the party submitted.

Regarding the formation of tribunals, the CEO said the high court is assessing the locations where the tribunals will be set up. Officials visited Judicial Academy in New Town on Friday and a report has been submitted.

Sources said the HC has forwarded to the Bengal govt a complaint by a Cooch Behar district judge alleging threats by a local political functionary.