The Trinamool Congress and the CPM are setting up help desks to assist voters in filing appeals after their names were removed from the electoral roll during the adjudication process.
After the post-SIR roll was published on February 28, more than 60.06 lakh voters were under adjudication. By Sunday, names of 26 lakh voters had been published in the supplementary list — either deleted or retained. Sources in the Election Commission said 42% of them did not make it to the electoral roll.
Many voters told Metro they were still unsure about what the appeals process would require.
“There were 2,759 voters under adjudication in the Shyampukur Assembly constituency on February 28, when the post-SIR roll was published. By the time the third supplementary list was released, 2,081 names had been deleted. This is a huge number, unexpected and shocking,” said Shashi Panja, state women and child development and social welfare minister and Trinamool’s candidate from Shyampukur.
Panja, along with two other party colleagues, went to the office of Bengal’s chief electoral officer last week and flagged the absence of any reason for the deletions.
“The apex court had said that deleted voters must know the reason why they were deleted, but no such reason has been given. We asked where that written order is. Without the order, how will people file an appeal? What argument will they present in their appeals?” she asked.
“I called off my Monday morning campaign to find out ways to help such voters. We are setting up a team of lawyers to help voters file appeals,” she said.
Several voters this newspaper spoke to said they did not know whether they had to appear before a judge to present their case or hire a lawyer. They were also not sure whether there would be any hearings at all. The cases would be decided by the tribunals of retired high court judges based on the documents submitted.
“Hiring a lawyer may be very expensive,” said a voter in Ballygunge whose name has been struck off the rolls.
Ballygunge, Entally and Calcutta Port are among the constituencies in Calcutta where many voters have been removed from the rolls after adjudication.
Abdul Rauf, the CPM candidate from Entally, said the party will offer free legal services to voters. “We will set up camps in all the wards of Entally,” said Rauf.
He said the party will organise protest marches against the large-scale deletion between Tuesday and Thursday.
The CPM has set up a team of lawyers and para-legal members to help voters. They have also conducted camps in several parts of Howrah.