March 11 (TSP Bangla) – Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar on Tuesday avoided answering one of Bengal’s most pressing election questions: whether the verification of 60.06 lakh voters whose names are currently under adjudication will be completed before the upcoming Assembly polls.
Kumar sidestepped the query during an interaction with journalists at a hotel in New Town. He only stated that voters who are found eligible by judicial officers would have their names uploaded on the website of the Election Commission of India.
“On supplementary lists, as per the directive of Supreme Court, once the learned judges clear the names, supplementary lists would be published and will be uploaded on the website. It will be updated time to time,” Kumar said.
For now, those whose names are on the under-adjudication list remain uncertain about whether they will be able to vote in the Assembly elections.
Led by Kumar, the full bench of the Election Commission had been in Kolkata from March 8 to 10 to review preparations for the state polls.
During the visit, the commission held meetings with representatives of political parties, officials of the state government, members of central enforcement agencies and some booth-level officers (BLOs). After a press conference on Tuesday, the delegation left for Delhi in the afternoon.
Kumar said instances of “logical discrepancies” had been found in all 12 states where the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter lists was carried out. However, he added that voter documents in Bengal required particularly stringent scrutiny because a large number of cases had remained unresolved at the level of electoral registration officers (EROs) and assistant EROs in the state.
“(In other states) wherever logical discrepancies or unmapped cases were found, the BLOs, the AEROs and the EROs met the electors and conducted the hearings and corrective steps were taken where correct papers were given,” Kumar said.
“However, in West Bengal there were a lot of undecided cases at the level of AEROs because of which micro-observers had to be appointed and documents had to be verified in a stringent manner.”
A poll panel official said it was not possible for Gyanesh Kumar to say whether all the under-adjudication cases would be settled before the Assembly elections.
“The cases are being adjudicated by judicial officers under Supreme Court directions. It’s the chief justice of Calcutta High Court who will decide when and how many times the supplementary lists would be published,” an official said.
The 60.06 lakh voters with unresolved “logical discrepancies” were included in the preliminary “final” electoral rolls published on February 28, but their names were marked as “under adjudication”.
These voters will be allowed to cast their ballots only if judicial officers appointed by the chief justice of the Calcutta High Court approve their inclusion in the final rolls. Their names must also appear in supplementary voter lists before the last date for filing nominations in their respective constituencies.
One voter, still unsure whether he would be able to vote in the upcoming elections, questioned the process. “When the SIR was rolled out, the EC had said that those who could map themselves to the 2002 voter list would be included in the final electoral rolls. Then how can so many mapped voters like myself still be under adjudication?” he said.
The full bench of the Election Commission of India, however, said several measures would be taken to ensure that the Assembly elections in Bengal are conducted in a free and fair manner.
The Election Commission of India also sent out several messages to state government officials during meetings with the chief secretary, the director-general of police, district magistrates and superintendents of police (SPs). Some of the instructions included:
- The rule of law must be enforced without fear or favour;
- Government employees’ conduct should be absolutely nonpartisan;
- The enforcement agencies should remain absolutely impartial;
- All the pending work should be done impartially.
A source in the Election Commission of India said the commission had stressed the need to maintain law and order and issued stern messages to district magistrates and superintendents of police (SPs) on the matter.
Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar also made it clear that although Opposition parties had demanded that the Assembly elections be held in a single phase or two phases, the full bench would return to Delhi and review the information gathered during its visit to Bengal before deciding on the number of phases.
“The number of phases would depend on the preparedness and on the law-and-order situation,” the CEC said.
