The hearing process to address “logical discrepancies” identified during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in West Bengal has been completed. This paves the way for the release of the final voters’ list on Saturday. During the revision, over 58 lakh names, including deceased, duplicate, and shifted voters, were marked for deletion from the draft roll issued in December.
The updated list will introduce two new categories, “under adjudication” and “deleted”, in addition to the names of verified voters. West Bengal’s Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Manoj Kumar Agarwal explained that the “under adjudication” category will include voters whose identity documents are still under review by specially appointed judicial officers as per the Supreme Court’s directive. These voters will be listed under this category in the final voters’ list.
Supplementary lists will be published later, including the names of voters under the “under adjudication” category. The final voters’ list will also include a category for voters excluded during the entire SIR exercise that began in November. These excluded voters will be listed under the “deleted” category. The aim is to enhance transparency and inform voters of their status. The Commission is yet to decide on voters categorized under “logical discrepancies” due to unusual family-tree data found during “progeny mapping”.
West Bengal had 7.66 crore voters during the SIR announcement, with over 58 lakh names removed, resulting in a draft list of 7.08 crore voters by December last year.
