KOLKATA: West Bengal’s second supplementary voters’ list was published late Friday night, but uncertainty remains over how many of the nearly 12 lakh names have cleared judicial scrutiny.
As with the first list released close to midnight earlier this week, officials offered limited clarity. Chief Electoral Officer Manoj Agarwal said around 37 lakh of the 60 lakh pending cases have been disposed of so far.
“After receiving the list from the Calcutta High Court, the Election Commission takes 4–6 hours to process and upload it on the server,” he said earlier in the day.
The updated rolls will be displayed at polling stations and made available through district election officers, district magistrates, subdivisional officers and block development officers. Those excluded can file appeals within 15 days, either online or offline, before appellate tribunals. A third supplementary list is scheduled for April 3.
Election Commission sources indicated that 35–40% of applicants whose documents were reviewed by judicial officers have been disenfranchised.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress (TMC) moved the Calcutta High Court on Friday, seeking daily publication of supplementary lists. The party argued that the first list contained only 7.49 lakh names despite 27 lakh cases having been adjudicated, leaving the status of over 20 lakh applicants unclear.
The TMC also flagged that 11 of its candidates undergoing scrutiny still do not know their voter status. It raised concerns about the limited window for appeals, citing the April 7 deadline to finalise electoral rolls for the first phase of polling across 152 constituencies.
Earlier in the day, Chief Justice Sujoy Paul chaired a meeting on the issue with senior state and police officials, including Chief Secretary Dushyant Nariala, Home Secretary Sanghamitra Ghosh, DGP S N Gupta, Kolkata Police Commissioner Ajay Nand, CEO Agarwal and special roll observer Subrata Gupta.
