Kolkata, February 27: Political activity is intensifying in West Bengal regarding the Special Intensive Review (SIR) of the voter list. The Supreme Court has ordered the release of the final voter list by February 28. Meanwhile, the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of West Bengal, Manoj Agarwal, confirmed on Thursday that the final voter list will be published on time, including two additional features.
Agarwal stated, “Just like every time a general list is released, the final list will be issued on February 28. However, it will include two features: cases that have gone to judicial review will be marked as ‘under judicial decision,’ and those that have been deleted will be labeled as ‘deleted.’ All other details will remain standard.”
He also mentioned that the total voting figure across the state is approximately 6,006,675.
In a related development, the Calcutta High Court has requested 200 judicial officers, with 100 each from the Odisha and Jharkhand High Courts. These officers will join the team already appointed to examine and decide on the documents of voters identified under the ‘logical discrepancy’ category.
The decision to summon 200 judicial officers from neighboring states was made during a high-level meeting chaired by Chief Justice Sujoy Paul of the Calcutta High Court.
The meeting included West Bengal’s Chief Electoral Officer Manoj Kumar Agarwal, Chief Secretary Nandini Chakraborty, Acting Director General of Police Piyush Pandey, Kolkata Police Commissioner Supratim Sarkar, and West Bengal’s special roll observer Subrata Gupta.
This SIR initiative is a significant effort by the Election Commission to purify the voter list in West Bengal, which has received millions of claims and objections. The active involvement of the Calcutta High Court and the Supreme Court has expedited the process. Recently, the Supreme Court permitted the deployment of 200 judicial officers from Odisha and Jharkhand to ensure timely verification of over 8 million claims.
The court clarified that if all verifications are not completed by February 28, the final roll should still be issued, with a supplementary list released later, which will also be considered part of the final roll.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had filed a petition in the Supreme Court, but the court allowed the process to continue. On the other hand, the BJP stated that this is a necessary exercise to purify the voter list by removing fake names.
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