(File Photo: IANS)
Kolkata, March 31 (IANS) Based on the average daily deletion rates of voters’ names in the course of the ongoing judicial adjudication of voters classified under the “logical discrepancy” category, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has estimated that the final deletion figure at the end of the process would be a little less than 90 lakh.
Explaining how the estimated final figure of deletion has been arrived at, an insider from office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), West Bengal on Tuesday pointed that already in the final voters’ list which was published on February 28, a total of 63,66,952 names were deleted mainly under the categories of “deceased”, “shifted”, “missing” and “duplicate” voters.
“The final list was minus the 60,00,675 cases, which were referred for judicial adjudication. Now, as far as the judicial adjudication process is concerned, it has been noticed that the average daily deletion of names during the ongoing adjudication process has been between 40 and 45 per cent of the cases whose adjudication has been completed. So, going by that average daily rate of deletion, it has been estimated that the final deletion figure will hover around 90 lakh,” the CEO’s office insider explained.
However, he added, this estimated figure is based solely on the average daily rate of name deletions in the judicial adjudication process. The voters whose names would be deleted in the judicial adjudication process will have the opportunity to approach any of the 19 Appellate Tribunals constituted for that purpose.
As of now, it is learnt that, based on figures available till Monday night, the judicial adjudication process is yet to be completed for just around 16 lakh voters, and the Commission is confident that the process will be completed within the current week.
Currently, over 700 judicial officers, including 100 each from neighbouring Odisha and Jharkhand, are involved in the adjudication process, and they are working day and night to complete the process at the earliest.
The two-phase Assembly elections in West Bengal will be conducted on April 23 and April 29. In the first phase, voting will be held in 152 Assembly constituencies, and in the second phase,142 seats will go to the polls. The results will be declared on May 4.
The nomination phase has started with the ECI issuing the notification for the elections on Monday.
