Kolkata, 19 January (H.S.) :

The deadline for submission of claims and objections to the draft voters’ list in West Bengal will end on Monday, marking a crucial phase in the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise being carried out ahead of the Assembly elections.

Along with claims and objections, Monday is also the last date for submitting Form 6 for inclusion of new voters, Form 7 for deletion of names due to death or other valid reasons, and Form 8 for correction or shifting of Assembly constituency or voter address. The original deadline of January 15 was later extended to Monday.

According to the election authorities, hearings on claims and objections will continue until February 7, while the final voters’ list is scheduled to be published on February 14. With less than a month remaining for completion of the hearing process and publication of the final roll, the Commission has fixed an ambitious target of completing around 7,00,000 hearings per day through nearly 6,500 hearing centres spread across the state.

Official sources said that till Sunday, a total of 9,00,128 applications under Form 6 had been received for inclusion of new voters. During the same period, the number of Form 7 applications seeking deletion of names stood at 1,41,847.

Election Commission data also contradicts claims made by the Trinamool Congress that a large number of living voters were wrongly marked as “deceased” during the enumeration stage, the first phase of the three-stage SIR process. Commission records show that the Trinamool Congress has submitted only 13 applications identifying voters who were incorrectly marked as deceased. The Bharatiya Janata Party has submitted just one such application.

After publication of the final voters’ list on February 14, the full bench of the Election Commission is expected to visit West Bengal. Soon after the visit, the Commission is likely to announce the polling schedule for the Assembly elections. Union Home Minister Amit Shah has recently indicated that polling and counting are expected to be completed by the end of April this year.

Hindusthan Samachar / Satya Prakash Singh