Poll panel releases add-on voter list in Bengal amid uncertainty over eligible names
Telegraph | 24 March 2026
The wait for the first supplementary list of eligible voters, from among those under adjudication, ended after the Election Commission released it on Monday night.
Sources in the office of the Bengal chief electoral officer said that the supplementary list had been uploaded to the EC and the Bengal CEO websites at 11.55pm. "The supplementary list has been uploaded first to the EC and subsequently to the Bengal CEO's websites," the source said.
However, the number of names deleted remains unknown, leaving those in the under-adjudication category in a zone of uncertainty until Tuesday. Till the list was uploaded five minutes before midnight, the day was marked by multiple shifting timelines.
"Initially, it was decided that the first list would be published around 6pm. But because of unavoidable circumstances, it has been postponed to 8pm,” a poll panel source said around 6pm.
The source added: “It seems that this deadline too would be missed and the list could be published late tonight.”
Bengal CEO Manoj Kumar Agarwal told reporters the server was in New Delhi and that he hoped the list would be published between 9pm and 9.30pm. But even this deadline was not met.
Poll panel sources said that so far, the cases of about 29 lakh voters from among the 60.06 lakh “under adjudication” voters had been decided. They said they would try to include in the first supplementary list all those approved from among these 29 lakh.
The list from the judicial officers had been sent to the CEO’s office in Calcutta via Calcutta High Court. It was subsequently dispatched to Nirvachan Sadan in Delhi, from where it was to be uploaded to the websites of the poll panel and the Bengal CEO.
“The commission has nothing to do with the inclusion or exclusion of the voters under adjudication,” a senior poll panel official said.
“A total of 705 judicial officers are disposing of these cases. The list that the commission will receive will be published in toto.”
Sources said the list would be divided into two parts: the first part naming those found eligible after adjudication, and the second listing those found ineligible.
“Those in the ineligible category can appeal before the tribunals set up by Calcutta High Court under 19 retired judges,” a source said.
Fearing law-and-order problems after the publication of the supplementary list, the commission and the state government have asked the district magistrates toensure tight security at vulnerable points.
The Bengal CEO met district officials and central force commanders on Sunday evening to discuss the subject.
Political parties other than the BJP have been building up pressure, threatening an agitation and a legal battle if genuine voters are left out of the rolls.
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee has been consistently accusing the poll panel of “working as an agent of the BJP”.
During a closed-door meeting at her Bhabanipur constituency on Sunday, she had said: “This ECI is merely a wing of the BJP.”
Mamata also described the “under adjudication” category and the supplementary lists as dubious. She said her party would stand by the lakhs of genuine Indian citizens being “deliberately disenfranchised”.
The CPM, which approached Calcutta High Court on the subject last week, has reaffirmed its stand that it would be “unconstitutional” to hold the Assembly polls if even a single genuine voter was excluded.
“We will fight till the end to ensure that not one genuine voter is left out under the guise of logical discrepancies. To do that will be unconstitutional,” CPM state secretary Md Salim said last week.
Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury has echoed the CPM and said the chief minister should take the lead, move the Supreme Court and issue a vote boycott call if elections are held while excluding genuine voters.
Tribunal set-up
The CEO’s office, sources said, has written to chief secretary Dushyant Nariala seeking offices for the tribunals in Calcutta and the districts so they can start functioning as soon as the first supplementary list gets published.