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In less than a month, West Bengal goes to the polls. Yet, even now, lakhs of people in the state have no idea what their position on the voter roll is.

The confussion arises from a special intensive revision of the voter rolls being carried out by the Election Commission. Yet, five months after it started, the process is still not complete. Moreover, how the process is being carried out is shrouded in mystery.

Late on Monday, the Election Commission released a first supplementary voter list, which is meant to decide the fate of six million voters “under adjudication”. The commission has still not released overall data from the state. The Hindu reported that out of 32 lakh decided in the first list, 13 lakh have been deleted from the state’s voter rolls.

It is unclear when the rest of the voter roll will be completed.

What happens to voters whose names have been deleted? Special tribunals will hear their appeals if they are filed within 15 days. Given the scale of...

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