With the deadline approaching for finalizing the voters’ list in West Bengal, the Election Commission of India plans to conduct 7,00,000 hearings daily across 6,500 centers in the state. Each center is expected to handle around 107 cases per day, making the target seem achievable, according to sources from the office of the Chief Electoral Officer, West Bengal.
The deadline for addressing claims and objections on the draft voters’ list is set for February 7, with the final voters’ list scheduled for publication on February 14. Following this, the Election Commission is likely to announce the polling dates for the upcoming Assembly elections in the state.
As the process of hearing “unmapped” voters nears completion, the focus will shift to resolving “logical discrepancy” cases. Unmapped voters are those who could not establish a connection with the 2002 voters’ list, while logical discrepancy cases involve irregular family-tree data during mapping.
To ensure authenticity, the Commission has mandated a two-stage verification process for supporting identity documents. Electoral registration officers will handle the initial verification, followed by District Magistrates conducting the second stage. Certain documents like state-issued domicile certificates and Madhyamik admit cards will not be accepted as valid identity proofs.
