340 Muslims names were taken off the electoral roll from a single polling place in the supplementary list of 23rd March (Monday), leading to a controversy in Basirhat of West Bengal. The deletions transpired from Boro Gobra village’s Booth No. 5. All of the impacted people were previously listed as “under adjudication” on the draft roster. The names of Mohammad Shafiul Alam, the Booth Level Officer (BLO) and his two siblings had also been removed. Afterwards, protest broke out in the area.
There are 992 registered voters at Begumpur Bibipur Gram Panchayat’s Booth No. 5 in Basirhat Block II. A total of 358 voters were called for eligibility hearings, while 38 names were eliminated owing to their movement to another region or death. They were put in the “under adjudication” category on 28th February’s final preliminary list. 18 of these cases were resolved in the draft list while the others were erased.
Similarly, during the SIR procedure, 522 voters from a booth in the Silampur 1 panchayat of Malda district’s Sujapur Assembly seat were designated as “under adjudication.” 427 individuals were removed from the initial supplementary list following their attendance at hearings and submission of supporting documentation.
On Monday, the Election Commission of India (ECI) published the 1st supplementary voters’ list ahead of the West Bengal Vidhan Sabha election. The development came amid the adjudication of pending cases of “doubtful voters” in the state. During the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), the Election Commission of India deleted a whopping 58,20,899 names from the electoral rolls of West Bengal on account of death, absence, shift and duplication.
At the same time, a list of 60 lakh “doubtful voters” was finalised, which had to be adjudicated by judicial officers. As per the directives of the Supreme Court, the Election Commission is mandated to publish the supplementary voters’ list to ensure the accuracy of the electoral rolls.
