The Election Commission of India (ECI) has published a supplementary electoral roll for West Bengal’s second phase of Assembly elections, adding 1,468 voters cleared by Supreme Court-mandated appellate tribunals and deleting six names.
The updated list comes just ahead of polling in 142 constituencies across seven districts, where over 32 million voters are expected to cast their ballots.
Tribunal orders reshape voter list
The additions follow decisions by 19 appellate tribunals constituted on March 20 under directions of the Supreme Court of India. The tribunals reviewed nearly 1,500 applications for the second phase and approved 1,468 names for restoration.
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As per a Hindustan Times report, an ECI official said voters whose names had earlier been struck off during the revision process were cleared after fresh scrutiny and will now be allowed to vote. Six names were ordered to be removed.
For the first phase held on April 23, tribunals had restored 139 names after reviewing 657 applications.
Limited relief amid larger controversy
However, there are fears regarding the larger numbers of voters that may have been impacted as part of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) excercise.
As many as 2.71 million voters who were registered as falling under the “logical discrepancy” head, including problems of incorrect spellings and other related issues, still cannot get their name added to the voting list as they do not have a hearing by the tribunal yet. In all, only 1,609 names have been added in both phases.
Political reactions intensify
Trinamool Congress (TMC) opposed the process, with the party’s member of parliament, Sushmita Dev, adding that the limited process was an indicator of other problems. “This is nothing against the lakhs who have been deprived of their right to vote,” she added.
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On the contrary, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) supported the process, with its spokesperson Debjit Sarkar stating that the tribunals had done a lot of work and accusing the TMC of trying to create a false narrative over voter deletions.
The second round consists of several important constituencies, most of which are held by the ruling TMC government of 2021. Results on May 4 will be critical for the reelection of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
