Nadia observer Amitabh Rajan (right) with district magistrate Rajesh Pandey. Picture by Palash Debnath

Feb. 1: Nearly one lakh ?bogus? voters have been detected in Nadia alone.

The 19-member Election Commission (EC) team, now on the second leg of their mission to weed out such voters, arrived in their assigned districts today.

After a meeting with Nadia observer Amitabh Rajan, district magistrate Rajesh Pandey said by February 15, when the final electoral roll would be published, the number of dead, shifted or Bangladeshi voters is expected to go past the one-lakh mark.

?We have deleted 90,000 names from the voter lists already ? the highest in the state so far,? Pandey said. Nadia has about 27 lakh voters. These bogus voters in Nadia were identified following an inquiry initiated by EC adviser K.J. Rao last month.

Rajan reached Krishnagar this morning and met district officials to review the progress of the electoral roll revision. ?I will begin where Mr Rao left off,? he said. Like Rao, Rajan said he will go from door to door to ascertain the validity of complaints filed by political parties.

But, unlike Rao, who never disclosed his destination to the media, Rajan handed to journalists his schedule for the next seven days.

The CPM reacted sharply. ?EC officials are not supposed to inform others about their movement,?? said Rabin Deb, the government?s chief whip.

Rao, who is overseeing the roll revision in West Midnapore this time, held a series of meetings with officials and parties. Accompanied by district magistrate D. Nariyala and Midnapore Sadar block development officer Mohammad Kamruddin, Rao visited various pockets of Midnapore town with a list of complaints submitted to him by the Opposition parties.

In Calcutta, chief electoral officer Debasish Sen said the observers for Malda, East Midnapore, Bankura and Nadia were replaced at the last moment as those earlier scheduled could not turn up because of personal reasons.

All observers will submit their reports to the EC on their return to Delhi. The EC will meet them on February 10 to discuss their findings.