Only 139 of 1.4 mn get tribunal clearance for Bengal’s Ist phase

Only 139 names were included on Wednesday in the final voter rolls for the first phase of the assembly election in ‘West Bengal after appellate tribunals cleared these people, earlier placed under a controversial “logical discrepancy” and “unmapped voters” category and rejected by judicial officers after adjudication.

- Harsh Yadav and Joydeep Thakur

In comparison, the total number of people deleted because of logical discrepancies stands at 2.71 million. Of these, around 1.4 million were from constituencies going to polls in the first phase. In all, the 19 tribunals — which took several days to even become operational ~ disposed of 657 cases arising from disputes linked to the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.

“In all, 139 names have been included in the voters’ list after being cleared by the appellate tribunals. Eight names have been deleted,” state chief electoral officer (CEO) Manoj Kumar Agarwal was quoted as saying by PTI. “All 139 voters whose names have been added following tribunal orders will be able to vote tomorrow.”

The status of the remaining 510 cases was not immediately clear.