37 lakh names ‘adjudicated’, clarity still eludes Bengal voter list, Trinamool writes to HC
Telegraph | 28 March 2026
The fate of approximately 37 lakh of the 60 lakh names marked as under adjudication in Bengal had been decided till late Friday night though the identity of a majority of them remains undisclosed.
The second supplementary list would be published by Friday night, Election Commission sources said, refusing to put a deadline.
“Around 37 lakh cases have been disposed of till now. The supplementary list will be published tonight but the exact time is still uncertain. The commission’s portal is working fine. The earlier issues have been resolved,” said a source in the poll panel.
The fate of 60.06 lakh voters marked under adjudication in the final rolls published on February 28 – that includes 11 nominees from the ruling Trinamool – would be decided in the supplementary lists.
The first supplementary list was published close to midnight on Monday.
The Election Commission is yet to clarify how many among the 60-lakh-plus voters would be able to vote on April 23 and April 29 in the Assembly election.
The booth-wise data uploaded on the commission’s portal did not throw up any data on the electors included or deleted in many of the booths in the 294 Assembly constituencies.
The first supplementary list was riddled with glitches that posed hurdles for individual electors to confirm whether their names were included.
Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee had earlier on Friday described the lack of clarity around the supplementary list as “murder of democracy.”
Till Tuesday, the 705 judicial officers had disposed of 36 lakh cases, of which 35 to 40 per cent have been deleted from the electoral rolls, as per senior officials in the chief electoral officer’s office.
On Friday evening, Chandrima Bhattacharya, state minister-in-charge of finance (Independent), wrote to Calcutta High Court Chief Justice Sujoy Paul to direct the Election Commission to publish the supplementary list at the earliest.
The ruling Trinamool has claimed the supplementary list published till Monday night included 4,32,973 voters and 3,16,890 electors had been deleted.
“It is, however, widely reported that the designated judicial officers have already disposed of approximately 27 lakh cases [the latest figure from the commission is 37 lakh]. No details have been disclosed in respect of the remaining cases, which are approximately 20 lakh,” the minister wrote in her letter addressed to the Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court.
The minister requested the chief justice to ensure that the supplementary list of electors adjudicated till Friday evening be released at the earliest.
“Such publication would serve the interest of justice and bring much-needed certainty to the status of several lakh electors,” the minister wrote.
The Supreme Court has directed the central poll panel to release the supplementary list till the last dates of filing of nominations for the two-phase Bengal polls.
The last date of filing of nominations for the 152 Assembly constituencies in the first phase is April 6 and for the remaining 142 seats it is April 9.
The Trinamool, with 11 of its nominees including two state ministers still under adjudication, has made a request to fast track the adjudication process of the candidates nominated by the political parties to contest in the election.
The Trinamool also requested the high court chief justice to ensure that the remaining supplementary lists are published daily.
“Daily publication would materially assist electors whose cases have already been decided and ensure that the appellate process operated in a fair, effective and meaningful manner without undermining their right to avail the appellate remedy,” Bhattacharya wrote.
The chief justice held a meeting with chief electoral officer Manoj Kumar Agarwal, chief secretary Dushyant Nariala and other senior officers on Friday evening to decide on the formation of the appellate tribunals, sources said.