E-Paper
10.2 million names could be struck off from electoral roll in WB: Mamata
Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee says 10.2 million names may be deleted from the electoral roll, urging protection of voting rights ahead of final roll publication.
Kolkata: West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee said on Wednesday said that around 10.2 million names could be deleted from the state’s electoral roll on completion of the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR).
“SIR is going on and many have already lost their voting rights. I am saddened. Initially 5.8 million names were deleted. Then a few million more names were labelled as logical discrepancies. I believe this number could be as high as 80 lakhs. Around 10.2 million names are could be deleted from the electoral roll. I personally went to the Supreme Court,” Banerjee said while addressing a government programme at Bhownipore in south Kolkata, the constituency that she represents in the assembly.
The chief minister’s remarks came just three days ahead of the publication of the final electoral roll by the Election Commission. While 5.8 million names were dropped in the draft electoral roll which was published on December 16, another 15.2 million unmapped voters and those with logical discrepancies were called for a hearing.
“I don’t want to differentiate between voters of any political parties or any communities. I just want to ensure that democracy is not destroyed and people enjoy their rights. If any voter’s name is deleted, I am against it. At least four to five days have passed since the Supreme Court’s verdict came. But still work hasn’t started yet,” she said referring to SC’s Tuesday’s order in which it had directed the Calcutta high court to deploy judicial officers to revisit and dispose of around six million pending claims of unmapped voters and those with logical discrepancies.
An EC official said, “Around 250 judicial officers, appointed by the Calcutta high court have started work, since Monday afternoon.”
A senior EC official said that documents of around 114,000 voters couldn’t be uploaded on the poll panel’s data bank before the deadline of February 14.
The apex court on Wednesday directed the Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) and Additional Electoral Registration Officers (AEROs) to hand over the documents to the judicial officers by 5pm on Thursday.
“I am not sure how disheartened the voters, whose names are dropped from the final electoral roll would feel. I pray for them so that their voting rights are not snatched. Names were dropped even after the voters submitted documents (during hearing),” Banerjee claimed.
“Once the pending claims are disposed of by the judicial officers, the eligible voters would be enrolled in the final electoral roll. If the final roll is already published by then, we would publish supplementary rolls to include the genuine voters. Supplementary rolls may be published even after the poll dates are announced, till the date of nomination,” said an ECI official requesting anonymity.
