10L + voters may be dropped as document scrutiny remains incomplete

More than four lakh voters’ documents have been marked as “ineligible” by micro observers during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls in West Bengal, raising the possibility that over 10 lakh names may eventually be excluded from the final voters’ list.

According to sources, micro-observers appointed by the Election Commission of India (ECI) have already flagged documents submitted by 4,44,970 voters as ineligible.

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Details of these cases have been forwarded to the Commission. In addition, as many as 4,66,323 documents are still pending with District Magistrates and awaiting verification.

Earlier, it had emerged that around seven lakh voters did not appear for hearings conducted as part of the SIR process.

Combined with those whose documents have been declared ineligible, more than 10 lakh voters could be dropped from the final electoral rolls.

The Commission had earlier identified around 58 lakh voters as deceased, absent, or missing, leading to their names being excluded from the draft list.

During the hearing phase, a further 10 lakh voters were identified. Of them, nearly seven lakh failed to attend the hearings, while the remaining cases relate to documents found to be ineligible.

Following directions from the Supreme Court of India, the Commission has announced that the final electoral roll for West Bengal is scheduled to be published on 28 February.

However, significant work remains pending.

The deadline for document verification is 21 February, and officials indicated that if the process is not completed by then, the publication of the final list may be delayed further.

Sources in the Chief Electoral Officer’s office said that the Commission may seek an extension if disposal of documents is not completed in time.

During the hearings, voters submitted various documents, which are being scrutinised by Commission-appointed micro-observers.

Special observers have also been deployed to review the overall process. After preliminary checks, micro-observers have referred documents of at least 30 lakh voters back to Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) and Assistant Electoral Registration Officers (AEROs) for re-verification.

Despite this, a large number of cases remain undecided. Commission sources said that around 20 lakh voters’ documents are still pending with EROs and AEROs, with no final decision taken so far.

These cases are expected to be resolved after further consultations with officials.

The Commission had earlier published a list of 13 acceptable documents for the SIR process and made it clear that no document outside this list would be accepted, a position later endorsed by the Supreme Court.

However, confusion has reportedly arisen in several cases where voters submitted documents not included in the approved list, some of which were still accepted by officials.