SIR in Bengal: No single deceased, duplicate or shifted voter in 2,208 booths, says ECI

Kolkata, Dec 1 The Election Commission of India (ECI), till Monday evening, has identified 2,208 polling booths in West Bengal which do not have a single deceased voter or duplicate voter having names in two places or any voter who has shifted elsewhere.

An insider from the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), West Bengal, said that the maximum number of such booths without a single deceased voter or duplicate voter or shifted voter had been in South 24 Parganas district at 760, followed by Purulia in the distant second position at 228.

Minority-dominated Murshidabad and Malda districts are in the third and fourth positions on this count, with their numbers standing at 226 and 216, respectively.

There had been 582 polling booths in the state, where there had been only one such case of a deceased or duplicate, or a shifted voter. For 420 booths, there had been just two such cases.

However, the BJP had expressed doubts over the fact that in so many booths, not a single dead voter or duplicate voter, or deceased voter has been identified.

BJP leader and the party councillor with Kolkata Municipal Corporation, Sajal Ghosh, said that the figure is quite doubtful, and a review of the enumeration collected from these booths should be conducted immediately.

Earlier in the day, the Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, requested the Election Commission of India to conduct an audit of the entries of the enumeration forms for the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in the state on the three dates of November 26, November 27, and November 28.

A BJP delegation led by Adhikari visited the CEO’s office and submitted a complaint, where one of the demands was an audit of the enumeration forms entries during the three days mentioned above.

“We have placed a demand for the audit of the entries for the three days by the team of central observers who have been specially deputed by the ECI for West Bengal to review the SIR process. The audit should be done using sophisticated modern technology. During the three days, there were a record 1.25 crore enumeration form entries. This is a scam and should be investigated by the commission,” Adhikari told media persons after submitting the complaint.

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