With 10.9% net voter deletions, Bengal 5th among 12 states, UTs | India News
New Delhi: West Bengal, which has seen the most outcry against SIR, ranks fifth in terms of net deletion (10.9%) among the 12 states/UTs where SIR Phase 2 has been completed, and third in terms of total deletion of absentee, transferred, dead and doubly enrolled electors-AS. The state was second only to Uttar Pradesh in excluding dead voters from the list. 25.5 lakh dead voters have been identified and removed in UP, West Bengal has 24.2 lakh voters. Together, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal accounted for nearly three-fourths of the 66.9 lakh dead voters deleted across the 12 states/UTs. In terms of permanently shifted voters, lists were closed in Phase 2 of West Bengal, with 19.9 lakh out of a total of 3.1 crore deletions in this category, ranking sixth. Bengal’s voter strength at the start of SIR was second only to that of UP.
UP, where emigration is a common phenomenon, has the largest number of displaced voters (1.3 crore) deleted, followed by Tamil Nadu (52.7 lakh), Gujarat (40.2 lakh), Rajasthan (24.9 lakh) and Madhya Pradesh (22.8 lakh). A total of about 1.3 crore electors have been removed across 12 states/UTs for being enrolled in multiple places. In this category, West Bengal was at number 8, the lowest among large states. Discarding 1.4 lakh double-enrolled voters, it finished behind UP (79.5 lakh), Tamil Nadu (13.5 lakh), Gujarat (9.7 lakh), Madhya Pradesh (8.4 lakh), Kerala (6.4 lakh), Rajasthan (4.6 lakh) and Chhattisgarh (3.7 lakh). Apart from closing the ASDD voter list, there is an “Others” section covering those who chose not to fill and submit the enumeration form despite multiple visits by booth level officials. Of the 12.7 lakh deletions under this head, West Bengal had the fourth-highest number (57,604), followed by UP (7.7 lakh), Gujarat (1.9 lakh) and Kerala (1.6 lakh). West Bengal added the least number of voters among the major states during the SIR. These additional enrollments were based on Form 6 (first-time voters) and Form 8 (existing voters enrolled at a new address). West Bengal added 7.5 lakh voters, placing it seventh after UP (92.4 lakh), Tamil Nadu (35 lakh), Kerala (20.4 lakh), Rajasthan (15.4 lakh), Madhya Pradesh (12.9 lakh) and Gujarat (12.2 lakh). A further 63.2 lakh names were deleted through Form 7 or Raya across 12 states/UTs, the latter practice being exclusive to West Bengal. The TMC-ruled state topped the list with 33.1 lakh deletions, of which 27.1 lakh were adjudicated by judicial officers and the remaining 6 lakh were removed after objections received through Form 7. Overall, West Bengal’s 10.9% net deletion – as a percentage of voters at the start of SIR – put it lower than Andaman and Nicobar Islands (16.6%), UP (13.2%), Gujarat (13.1%) and Chhattisgarh (11.3%).
