Nearly 91 lakh voters have been removed from West Bengal’s voter lists as part of the special intensive revision of the state’s electoral rolls ahead of the Assembly polls, The Statesman reported on Tuesday citing data from the Election Commission.
The deletions represent nearly 11.9% of the state’s electorate of 7.6 crore that existed before the voter roll revision process began.
The exercise concluded after judicial officers adjudicated about 60 lakh claims and objections. However, voters who were removed during the adjudication process can appeal in 19 tribunals set up for the purpose.
Details of 59.8 lakh cases under adjudication have been finalised and signed by judicial officers, the newspaper quoted the chief electoral officer’s office as saying.
In the 60 lakh cases that were adjudicated by judicial officers, more than 27 lakh voters were found “excludable” and have been removed from the voter lists. This brought the total deletions as part of the exercise in the state to 90.8 lakh, an unidentified officer told the newspaper.
“The process of putting e-signatures of the judicial officers is yet to be completed for 22,163 cases,” the official said. “Once that is completed, some more names might be added to the current deletion figure.”
District-wise, the highest number of deletions during the adjudications phase had taken place in Muslim-dominated...
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