Panchayats polls: Bengal going ahead with flawed voters’ list

This voters' list -- that is the very basis of the State Election Commission's poll schedule -- and was published on January 18 this year is already being revised by the country's Election Commission after it noticed irregularities on it.

The state's Commissioner Ashok Gupta said the poll machinery will be finalised according to the list released in January. The State Election Commission, which conducts elections for rural and urban local bodies, is run by the state government. It does not release a voters' list of his own but goes by that prepared by the Election Commission of India.

Meanwhile, Chief Electoral Officer Debasish Sen is taking a fresh look at the published list. "We have a feeling there are errors in that roll. Our officers are analysing the reasons that have led to the publishing of faulty data. We shall rectify them soon," Sen said.

The EC has already noted that Bengal has nine per cent less voters than the all India average of 67. Sen said: "This can be because infiltrators from Bangladesh cannot be put arbitrarily on the election roll now because of strict EC guidelines. We are also trying to find out if the names of genuine voters are also missing from the list."

At present, there are 5.04 crore voters in Bengal. Nearly 75 per cent or 3.75 crore are rural voters who will go to polls for the Panchayats in 37,000 booths. The Panchayat elections will be held in three phases on May 11, 14 and 18. There will be elections in 3,358 gram panchayats, 340 panchayat samities (block-level panchayat bodies), 17 zilla parishads (district-level panchayat bodies) and the Siliguri Mahakuma Parishad. Sources in the Election Commission said the three phases will take place in north Bengal, Maoist-affected areas and south Bengal respectively. The strength of the central forces required to keep an eye on polling day is being worked out.

The Opposition has begun grumbling about the voters' list. The Trinamool and the Congress will raise the issue politically. Congress leader Manas Bhuniya said: "The elections cannot be conducted with this roll, we have told the State Election Commission. The photographs of voters do not match and genuine voters are not on this list." Trinamool MLA Partha Chatterjee said: "In West Bengal, elections are not fair. There is no fair voting machinery either."