The West Bengal unit of the Congress on Thursday urged the Election Commission of India (ECI) to complete the adjudication process of voters in the state before announcing the next round of elections, warning that millions of electors could otherwise face uncertainty over their voting status.
Senior party leaders said a memorandum had been submitted to the Commission seeking the completion of the adjudication process for more than 60 lakh electors before the start of any election process in the state.
Addressing a press conference in New Delhi, Congress general secretary in charge of West Bengal Ghulam Ahmad Mir, state party president Subhankar Sarkar, MP Isha Khan Choudhury, along with leaders Prasenjit Bose, Ashutosh Chatterjee, BP Singh and Munish Tamang said the electoral rolls published on February 28 pursuant to a direction of the Supreme Court of India include 7,04,59,284 electors.
Of these, they said, 60,06,675 voters — around 8.5 per cent — have been marked as “under adjudication”. According to the leaders, these electors fall under categories such as “logical discrepancy” and “unmapped,” with the majority concentrated in assembly constituencies in districts including Murshidabad, Malda, North 24 Parganas and South 24 Parganas.
“The scale of the issue is unprecedented. More than 60 lakh electors have been kept under adjudication. If elections are announced before this process is completed, it could create confusion and lead to large-scale disenfranchisement,” Mir said.
The Congress leaders pointed out that the apex court, in its February 24 order, had directed that supplementary lists be published on a continuous basis as and when the pending verification exercise is completed. Given the magnitude of the exercise and logistical constraints noted in the court’s order, they said the adjudication process could take several weeks.
Citing provisions of the Representation of the People Act, 1950, the party leaders noted that Section 24 allows electors who are excluded by Electoral Registration Officers to appeal before district election officers and the Chief Electoral Officer. However, they added that Section 23 bars any inclusion in the electoral roll after the last date for filing nominations in an election.
“In this situation, the Election Commission must clearly notify a deadline for completing the adjudication process in consultation with the higher judiciary and ensure that the election process begins only after this exercise is finished,” Sarkar said.
The party also sought clear guidelines for the appeal and re-enrolment process for eligible voters who may have been erroneously excluded from the rolls. The memorandum submitted to the Commission warned that without corrective measures, many eligible voters could lose their right to vote.
Raising concerns over the pattern of additions and deletions during the revision process, Congress leaders cited official data showing that while 9.64 lakh Form 6 and Form 6A applications seeking inclusion were received during the claims and objections period, only 1.82 lakh were admitted, implying that around 7.82 lakh applications were rejected.
At the same time, they said that although roughly 99,000 Form 7 applications for deletion were received during the same period, more than 5.46 lakh voters were deleted through Form 7, indicating that about 4.47 lakh additional deletion requests were accepted after the claims and objections period had already closed.
“Such discrepancies raise serious questions about the revision process. The Commission must undertake a re-verification of all Form 6 and Form 7 applications before finalising the rolls,” Choudhury said.
The Congress leaders also pointed out that similar special revision exercises conducted in states such as Bihar and Tamil Nadu recorded significantly higher additions than deletions, and argued that the pattern observed in West Bengal required closer scrutiny.
They urged the Election Commission to undertake a comprehensive re-verification of all additions and deletions in the electoral rolls to ensure that no eligible voter in the state is denied the right to participate in the democratic process.