The Election Commission of India (ECI) has ordered strict scrutiny of booths where all enumeration forms, or only one to 10 forms each, were returned. This implies that the number of deceased, absent or shifted voters reported from these booths is either nil or negligible, according to the Commission.

Since the last Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in West Bengal took place in 2002, having no deceased voters across a period of 23 years is “almost impossible”, the Commission said. The data, therefore, is “not acceptable”, officials said.

According to ECI sources, out of the state’s 7.66 crore voters, 96.37% of enumeration forms have already been digitised.

A senior ECI official said, “Wherever questions are raised, we will scrutinise the detailed information provided in the forms. It should be noted that if anyone provides false information, it is a punishable offence. So, under any circumstance, we cannot be reluctant. We also told EROs that even if an individual’s name is in the 2002 list, but the information provided raises questions, that person can also be called for a hearing.”

According to Commission data, there are 2,208 polling stations where all enumeration forms were returned. Of these, the highest number is in South 24 Parganas (760), followed by Purulia (228) and Murshidabad (226). Across roughly 80,000 booths in the state, 542 returned only one enumeration form. In 420 booths, only two forms were returned. Another 4,764 booths returned between three and 10 forms. All such booths are under the ECI’s scanner.

Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of West Bengal Manoj Agarwal on Monday issued orders to all DEOs, EROs, AEROs and BLOs, stating: “The data of dead persons would be available from Janma Mrityu Tathya/Registrar General of Births and Deaths, and cancellation of ration cards on death. EROs should verify the entries, if any, made by BLOs for all such cases in the constituency.”

The order added, “Polling stations with 0 to 20 uncollectable enumeration forms should also be scrutinised thoroughly to check the correctness of the details entered by the BLOs… In cases where a family member has signed on behalf of an absentee member, the BLO must check the veracity of the applicant over a phone call, house visit etc., and also ascertain that he is not a voter in any other place in the country.”

Story continues below this ad

The order also noted the possibility of “errors in EF entry in the BLO app”. The roll-back option for corrections has been opened, and EROs, AEROs and BLOs have been asked to use this window to correct any entries suspected to be incorrect.

According to the CEO, “For every constituency, the booths marked as sensitive in the last elections (2024, 2021) should be in focus for carrying out checks. All those booths where progeny mapping is 50% or more of the total mapping in the booth should be scrutinised thoroughly.”

Expand

Atri Mitra is a Special Correspondent of The Indian Express with more than 20 years of experience in reporting from West Bengal, Bihar and the North-East. He has been covering administration and political news for more than ten years and has a keen interest in political development in West Bengal.

Atri holds a Master degree in Economics from Rabindrabharati University and Bachelor’s degree from Calcutta University. He is also an alumnus of St. Xavier’s, Kolkata and Ramakrishna Mission Asrama, Narendrapur.

He started his career with leading vernacular daily the Anandabazar Patrika, and worked there for more than fifteen years. He worked as Bihar correspondent for more than three years for Anandabazar Patrika. He covered the 2009 Lok Sabha election and 2010 assembly elections. He also worked with News18-Bangla and covered the Bihar Lok Sabha election in 2019. … Read More

Stay updated with the latest – Click here to follow us on Instagram

© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd