Confusion prevailed over the publication of the first supplementary electoral list in West Bengal, with the Election Commission of India (ECI) admitting that it had no data on the number of post-separation deletions till Tuesday evening.
As voters and candidates whose names were under adjudication struggled to make it to the list, the poll panel faced sharp criticism from the ruling Trinamool Congress and opposition parties.
“We will not be able to say how many names have been deleted from the first supplementary list. We do not have that data. We have published the list along with any data we have received from judicial officers appointed by the Calcutta High Court. Of the 6 million cases pending, about 290,000 claims have been disposed of,” Chief Electoral Officer Manoj Kumar Agarwal said.
The list was uploaded to the ECI website around midnight on Monday. A second supplementary list is likely to appear on Friday, people familiar with the matter said.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee questioned the timing and transparency. “Why was the supplementary list published around midnight? The lists were not displayed at the kiosks or desks. What are they afraid of? This means there is no transparency,” she said, alleging a delay despite judicial officials sending the names earlier.
Congress leader Adhir Chowdhury said: “The polling dates have been announced, but the voters’ list is yet to be finalized. People have lost confidence in the EC. Where can people appeal if their names are dropped? No court space has been provided for the courts.”
The Election Commission of India said the list had been published at the constituency and polling station levels, but many of them reported technical problems. “I have been trying since morning to check the list. It is not open. There might be server issues,” said Onus Sarkar, CPI(M) candidate from Jalangi, whose name is under adjudication.
The camp of TMC candidate Mohammad Ghulam Rabbani also reported access issues.
But some candidates found relief. The names of Jakir Hossain (Janjipur) and Bhairon Biswas (Sagardighi) have been cleared from the TMC. “My name was missing earlier. It has now been removed… Nowhere else has the SIR created such complications,” Biswas said.
EC officials said only names that had been electronically signed by judicial officials by 5pm on March 23 were on the list. In some cases, such as in Bhabanipur, the portal did not show any arbitration data.
A senior European Commission official noted that there were “temporary glitches.” BJP state president Samik Bhattacharya alleged irregularities, saying Form 7 applications were not uploaded in many places and demanded, “No sir, no vote.”
