Bengal SIR: Final voters’ list to be published today, classified under 3 categories

The Election Commission of India will publish West Bengal’s final voters’ list, categorising names as “approved”, “under adjudication”, or “deleted”, with lakhs under judicial scrutiny and multiple online and offline verification options available to electors

Kolkata: The final voters’ list in West Bengal is all set to be published today, with voters’ names classified under three broad categories: “Approved”, “under adjudication”, and “deleted”.

The “approved” category will include the names of individuals who have been classified as genuine voters. The “under adjudication” category will have the names of those voters identified under the “logical discrepancy” category, whose supporting identity documents are pending scrutiny by judicial officers appointed for the purpose.

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Supplementary lists will be published from time to time for these “under adjudication” voters, depending on the progress of judicial scrutiny after the publication of the final voters’ list. As per the last information available, documents of around 60 lakh voters identified under the “logical discrepancy” category have been referred for judicial adjudication.

Finally, the “deleted” category will have those names that the Election Commission of India (ECI) had already identified for exclusion from the final voters’ list. Already 59 lakh names, under the categories of “deceased”, “duplicate”, “shifted” and “missing” voters were deleted in the draft voters’ list which was published in December last year.

Now, after the publication of the final voters’ list later in the day, some idea will be there on what the number of deletions is heading for. However, the final picture will only be available after the last supplementary list is published.

As of Friday afternoon, the number of “under adjudication” cases in North 24 Parganas stood at 5.90 lakh, the highest among all districts in the state. Next in order comes South 24 Parganas (5.20 lakh), West Midnapore (1,00,000), East Midnapore (80,000), Kolkata Dakshin (78,000) and Kolkata Uttar (60,000). The ECI has decided to share soft copies of the final list with registered political parties in the state in the interest of transparency.

It has also provided multiple options for voters to check the status of their names in the final roll. Voters can visit the official website of the Election Commission of India — eci.gov.in — and check the status by entering their name along with their EPIC number. They may also visit the official website of the West Bengal Chief Electoral Officer at ceowestbengal.wb.gov.in.

Another option is to visit the websites of the respective District Electoral Officers (DEOs) to verify names. Apart from these online options, the ECI has kept offline verification avenues open. Copies of the final voters’ list will be shared with Booth-Level Officers (BLOs), and voters can contact their respective BLOs for verification.

Hard copies of the final list will also be displayed at polling booths across different areas, enabling voters to check their names in person.