Election Commission adds 1,468 names to West Bengal voter list ahead of phase-2 election

E-PaperSubscribeSubscribeEnjoy unlimited accessSubscribe Now! Get features like The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Tuesday published a supplementary voter list for West Bengal’s second and final phase of assembly elections, adding 1,468 names cleared by Supreme Court-mandated appellate tribunals and deleting six names. Polling officials leave after collecting Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) and Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) units for voting in the second phase of the West Bengal Assembly elections. (PTI)The 19 tribunals – set up on March 20 after an order of the apex court – considered close to 1,500 cases for the second phase of polls and cleared 1,468 applications while ordering the deletion of six names. For the first phase of elections on April 23, the tribunals had cleared 139 names while considering 657 applications. This means that nearly all of the 2.71 million people flagged under a controversial logical discrepancy category in the special intensive revision stand disenfranchised without any hearing before the tribunals. Their applications were rejected in the first stage of logical discrepancy adjudication by judicial officers but there was no time for a hearing before the tribunals – each of which is headed by a former high court judge or chief justice – because the forums took too long to become functional. “Names of 1,468 voters, which were earlier deleted from the electoral roll by judicial officers after the adjudication process, have been cleared by the tribunals appointed by the apex court. These voters will be allowed to vote on Wednesday when 142 assembly seats go to polls. Six names have been deleted,” said an ECI official. The development comes a day before the crucial second phase of the assembly elections when 142 seats across seven districts in southern Bengal, considered a bastion of the ruling Trinamool Congress, go to the polls. In the 2021 polls, the TMC won 123 of these seats and the Bharatiya Janata Party won 19. The results will be announced on May 4. The BJP is hoping to deny chief minister Mamata Banerjee – whose seat of Bhabanipur is also going to the polls on Wednesday – a fourth straight term. Of the 2.71 million voters flagged under the logical discrepancy category over issues such as mismatch in name, spelling errors and mapping to parents, only 1,609 names were restored across the entire election cycle: two before the nomination deadline, 139 before Phase 1 on April 23, and 1,468 before Phase 2 on April 29. The restored names represent just 0.006% of the 2.7 million eligible for tribunal appeals. “Voters whose names were deleted by judicial officers can continue to approach the appellate tribunals, and if their names are cleared after Monday, they will be included in a future voter list — though not for this election cycle. Once the Model Code of Conduct is lifted, the electoral roll will be reopened for revision and names cleared by tribunals will be restored,” said West Bengal chief electoral officer Manoj Kumar Agarwal. The TMC said that the “inclusion of over 1,600 people and deletion of a small number shows the kind of work the ECI has done”. “The restoration figure itself is the example of the mess created by the ECI,” said TMC MP Sushmita Dev. “This is nothing against the lakhs and lakhs of people who have been deprived of their right to vote.” The BJP, meanwhile, said the tribunals have worked extensively and that the TMC has “no right to speak on voter inclusion or deletion”. “We have found that TMC filled Hindu names through Form 6 to achieve two things — first, to create fear among specific tribal and other communities that their votes are being deleted, making them believe Hindus will not vote for TMC, and second, to create a negative narrative against the SIR process and the BJP that Hindus are being targeted,” said party spokesperson Debjit Sarkar. Earlier this month, the apex court ordered that people cleared by appellate tribunals for inclusion in electoral rolls at least two days before polling will be entitled to vote, significantly relaxing the earlier freeze on voter lists and offering relief to many caught in the ongoing special intensive revision exercise. “The polling station-wise names of voters, whose names have been included or deleted, have been uploaded on the website. We would also give a copy of the updated list to the political parties, candidates, the returning officers and district election officers. The individual electors would be informed through the booth level officers,” said the ECI official quoted above. The 19 appellate tribunals were formally constituted through an ECI notification dated March 20, 2026, following a Supreme Court order on March 10. Each tribunal is headed by a former high court judge or chief justice. They were originally intended to add names to the rolls only until the close of nominations. By that deadline for the first phase on April 6, just two cases had been cleared. The Supreme Court subsequently invoked its powers under Article 142 of the Constitution, directing ECI to give effect to any appellate orders cleared by April 21 for Phase 1 and April 27 for Phase 2 by issuing a supplementary revised electoral roll. Joydeep Thakur is a Special Correspondent based in Kolkata. He focuses on science, environment, wildlife, agriculture and other related issues.