The deadline for hearings on claims and objections regarding the draft voters’ list in West Bengal is set to conclude on Saturday. It is likely that approximately 15 Assembly constituencies may receive an extension of a few days to finalize the process. These constituencies are primarily located in minority-dominated Malda, South 24 Parganas, and Kolkata (Uttar).
District Electoral Officers (DEOs) in these areas have formally requested deadline extensions from the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of West Bengal, Manoj Kumar Agarwal. Depending on the progress by Saturday, the CEO will recommend to the Election Commission of India (ECI) in New Delhi for deadline extensions in these constituencies.
By Friday evening, over 400,000 additional voters have been identified for potential deletion from the final voters’ list due to non-attendance at the hearings despite receiving notices. Among them, 400,000 face imminent deletion, 50,000 are categorized as “unmapped” voters, and about 350,000 fall under “logical discrepancy” cases.
“Unmapped” voters are those unable to link to the 2002 voters’ list, while “logical discrepancy” cases involve unusual family-tree data during mapping. The final number of deletions will be known upon the publication of the final voters’ list on February 14.
Following the list’s publication, the Election Commission of India will visit West Bengal for assessment before announcing the polling dates for the upcoming Assembly elections. A significant hearing on the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) is scheduled at the Supreme Court on Monday, where West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is expected to present arguments.
