Large scale irregularities have come to light during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process of the voter list released in West Bengal. Here, in the initial data sent to the Election Commission by the election officials of various districts, it was said that not a single dead, missing, transferred or duplicate voter has been found in 2,208 polling stations of the state and the forms distributed from all these booths have been returned completely filled.
However, when the Commission sought detailed reports from these districts on Monday, this number came down to just 480 in the revised figures sent on Tuesday. This huge difference in figures in just 24 hours has raised many questions. A part of the administration has attributed this change to the continuous updating of data, but despite this, doubts are being raised on this entire matter. It was told that the highest number of such booths has been recorded in South 24 Parganas district. These include booths in Raidighi, Kulpi, Magrahat and Patharpratima areas.
What did BJP leaders say on this disturbance?
BJP’s Union Minister Sukant Majumdar gave a strong reaction regarding this change. He said that on Monday the Commission was informed that all the forms of more than 2,200 booths have been returned, which means that no person there has died, gone missing nor has any double entry been found. But after the report was sought from the District Magistrate, this number suddenly reduced to 480. He raised the question, ‘Is this magic? This can happen only in Bengal.
According to EC sources, South 24 Parganas district has the highest number of such booths:
- Raidighi – 66
- Kulpi – 58
- Magrahat – 15
- Plateau Pratima – 20
Along with this, the Commission has also issued a separate list, in which many shortcomings related to verification have been pointed out. Most of the problems are related to ‘Progeny Mapping’, under which the voter’s name is verified on the basis of his parents or grandparents. Voters whose names were not in the voter list of 2002 have been asked to get re-verification done. Booths where the number of unverified cases is high have been instructed to be re-checked by inspectors.
How many people’s names will be removed from SIR?
A total of 46.20 lakh forms have been returned till 5 pm on Tuesday evening. These include 22.28 lakh forms related to dead voters, 6.41 lakh missing, 16.22 lakh transferred and 1.05 lakh forms related to duplicate entries. In the district-wise data, the percentage of dead voters has been recorded highest in Kolkata North at 6.91%, while in Purba Medinipur this percentage is lowest at 1.4%.
District wise percentage of dead voters
- Kolkata North: 6.91% (highest)
- Kolkata South: 6.06%
- North 24 Parganas: 3.47%
- South 24 Parganas: 3.25%
- Paschim Medinipur: 2%
- Purba Medinipur: 1.4% (lowest)
Meanwhile, the Commission has sent another letter to all the District Magistrates, in which instructions have been given to review the polling stations located in high-rise buildings. Its report has been sought from the districts by 6th December. According to the Commission, the aim of this initiative is to increase the voting percentage in apartments and densely populated areas.
West Bengal
