EC waits till midnight to release first supplementary list of 29 lakh Bengal voters

KOLKATA: Bengal voters under adjudication waited through Monday for the promised first supplementary electoral roll as Election Commission kept revising the deadline before finally pushing it to midnight. The list with around 29 lakh names was finally uploaded at 11.45pm.

Supreme Court, which had on March 10 ordered the publication of supplementary voters’ lists, will take up the case related to the SIR of the Bengal electoral roll for hearing again on Tuesday.




The release of the list was preceded by day-long confusion among voters under adjudication.

Speaking to reporters in the evening, Bengal CEO Manoj Agarwal said, “I don’t know how many names have been approved or rejected at this moment.” Around 60 lakh names on Bengal’s final vot-ers’ list were placed under adjudication.

In all, 705 judges were drafted to scrutinise documents and decide whether they are genuine electors or not.

“Till today, about 29 lakh pending cases have been disposed of. Whatever names have come through the e-sign of the judicial officer up to 4-5 pm today will be published. EC headquarters in Delhi is processing the exercise on the central server, and we hope the supplementary list will be published by 9-9.30 pm today. It takes 4-6 hours to prepare the list,” Agarwal said at a press briefing around 7.30pm.

The names approved by judicial officers will be marked as “Name Addition,” and those rejected will be marked as “Name Deletion” on the supplementary list.

The list can be accessed online at the EC website (https://voters.eci.gov.in/), CEO website (https://ceowestbengal.wb.gov.in/) and the ECINET app. Hard copies of the list will be available with DEOs, DMs, SDOs and BDOs. The list will also be displayed at polling stations on Tuesday, Agarwal said.

The CEO said that following a meeting at Calcutta High Court a few days ago, scrutiny of documents was over in Kalimpong, Jhargram, Purulia and Bankura.

EC has constituted 19 appellate tribunals headed by former high court judges to hear appeals from across Bengal on inclusion or exclusion of names following the publication of the supplementary lists. The poll panel had announced that the second list would be out on Friday and the third on April 3.

When asked when appeals can be filed, Agarwal said, “They can’t apply from tomorrow. Calcutta High Court will issue a notification. Following that, appeals can be made to the tribunals.”

He also said the tribunals will take time to become functional. “Tribunals need office space and allied infrastructure. We have sought space from the state govt and have discussed the issue with the chief secretary. Once the state govt provides the space, we will inform the high court. The court will then inspect and determine eligibility. If the space is deemed suitable, the court will allow us to proceed. Otherwise, we will have to scout for alternative spaces. But we are trying to set up tribunal offices as fast as we can,” Agarwal said.

Regarding the law and order situation in Bengal, he replied, “Law and order is a state subject. The chief secretary, home secretary, DGP and commissioner of Kolkata Police are looking into this. The DMs and SPs are also alert.”

Replying to a query on the role of police, he said, “The role of police is good. They have taken prompt action in places where trouble erupted.”