With the February 28 deadline for releasing the final electoral roll of West Bengal ahead of the Assembly elections due in two months, the fate of two lakh electors hangs in the balance.
According to the office of the state Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), documents of around 1.14 lakh electors, who were summoned in the second phase of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, could not be uploaded by the AEROs ( Assistant Electoral Registration Officers) by February 15 midnight deadline.
“We had briefed the AEROs repeatedly that on February 14 midnight, the login will be closed and no further upload of documents submitted during the hearing process will be entertained. Even after that, in many districts huge numbers of uploads were pending, around 1.14 lakh,” an official at the state CEO office said.
The Election Commission (EC) is also facing another problem.
“In the case of around one lakh electors, their birth certificates and other documents submitted are issued by other states. In case of birth certificates, secondary pass certificates, or any other documents provided from other states like Jharkhand, Bihar, Odisha, Tripura, we sent them to those states for verification and authentication. But those states are delaying sending the report, and this is causing uncertainty in the fate of around one lakh voters,” the official added.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had already raised the issue of non-uploading of documents of around one lakh voters. She had alleged, “As per the Supreme Court guidelines, the hearing process would be continued till February 14. But the EC closed the login at 3 pm. The EROs and AEROs failed to dispose of more than one lakh electors’ details. They are basically violating the Supreme Court’s guidelines.’
A TMC delegation had also met CEO Manoj Agarwal on Wednesday and had raised the issue.
“We have already raised this issue with the CEO. He said that he will raise the matter with the EC and will try to dispose of these cases properly,” TMC MP Partha Bhowmik said.
According to the CEO office, most of such cases were found in Howrah, North 24 Parganas, and South 24 Parganas.
CEO Agarwal said, “We are requesting the EC to evolve some way out to include those voters. We have already asked all the DEOs whose hearing details weren’t uploaded. Please verify those documents and separate them from the genuine voters. On the other hand, if the ECI refuses to allow it, we can apologise to those voters and arrange Form 6 for them.”
He also said that stern action will be taken against EROs and AEROs who fail to upload the documents within the stipulated time.
In the first phase of the SIR, names of 58 lakh electors – nearly 8 per cent of the total 7.66 crore voters in the 2025 electoral roll — were deleted in the state on grounds of being absent, shifted, dead and duplicate.