Trinamool Congress delegation to meet CEC over West Bengal on Dec 31 over SIR

Trinamool Congress’ (TMC) 10-member delegation is set to meet Chief Election Commission (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar on December 31 to discuss concerns over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in West Bengal, a source said on Saturday. The delegation will include senior leaders Abhishek Banerjee and Derek O’Brien, who represent the party in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha respectively. Party leaders plan to raise issues related to the ongoing SIR exercise, which has been a point of contention for the ruling party in the state.

Election Commission releases draft voter list, 58 lakh names deleted

Over a week ago, the Election Commission released draft electoral rolls for West Bengal after the month-long SIR process. The draft included names proposed for deletion, sparking debate. The Commission also published a separate list of names that have been cancelled following the exercise, available on the official website.

Around 58.8 lakh voters are likely to be removed from the electoral rolls in West Bengal. This includes 24.18 lakh deceased voters whose names were still on the list, 12.01 lakh voters who could not be traced, and nearly 20 lakh voters who were enrolled at more than one address. In addition, 1.37 lakh fraudulent entries and over 57,000 others were also excluded.

The Election Commission said the deletions are part of efforts to maintain accurate and updated voter records ahead of the state assembly elections scheduled early next year. Booth Level Officers conducted repeated checks at residences, and names of voters who could not be traced after multiple visits were added to the missing voters list.