The Election Commission is using the distribution of voter slips at home to recheck the electoral rolls for missing, shifted or deceased voters.

The names of people who have died between the start of the SIR exercise in October last year and April this year are being deleted from the rolls as part of the process.

“Please give me the names of voters who have died between the start of SIR and today,” a booth-level officer (BLO) in Kasba, under the Jadavpur Assembly constituency, told the booth-level agent (BLA) of the Trinamool Congress on Wednesday morning.

“There are at least 10 voters in our area who have died in this period,” the BLA replied.

Since Tuesday evening, the BLO has visited around 350 households in the locality and identified four voters who had died between November and April.

The BLO marked “D” against the names of deceased voters in the electoral rolls
she carried and sought death certificates, said a resident whose father had recently
died and whose home was visited.

“Please Note: This time, there would not be any distribution of voter slip by the respective political parties. Election Commission’s voter slip would be the only distribution,” wrote the president of a residents’ association in Salt Lake in a social media group message.

“In case someone misses to receive this slip, not to worry. If your name is there in the final voter list, he/she would be allowed to vote by presenting any government recognised photo ID proof,” the message added.

A Salt Lake resident said when a BLO visited his home for the home voting facility for his elderly mother, who was eligible, he informed the officer that she had passed away a month earlier and showed her death certificate.

“There is a clear instruction to all BLOs that they must identify people who have died since the electoral rolls were frozen, as well as those who have shifted to other constituencies but still remain on the list,” a senior official in the office of Bengal’s chief electoral officer told Metro.

“The BLO should not hand over voter slips issued in the names of such persons. These names must also be communicated to the presiding officer, who should have updated details on polling day,” the official said.

If any such person arrives at a polling station and disputes the record, they may still be allowed to vote.

“If they insist that the information provided to the presiding officer was wrong, they may be allowed to vote after signing a declaration. The declaration will state that the information provided by the voter is true, and if found otherwise, the person will be prosecuted according to law,” the official said.

“The punishment can be imprisonment of up to six months,” the official added.

Political party workers, who usually visit homes to deliver voter slips issued by their respective parties, said
they had never seen BLOs visiting homes to hand over the slips.

“Earlier, BLOs used to sit outside polling booths on election day and hand over slips to voters who approached them. Their role was largely passive,” said a BJP worker in south Calcutta.

“But this time, BLOs are taking an active role in delivering voter slips,” he added.

The fresh “revision” exercise has also triggered concern among residents, particularly those with family members living outside the state.

“My son studies in Bengaluru and will not be able to come now. I do not know whether the BLO can remove his name at this stage,” said a Kasba resident.

About 90.82 lakh voter names were deleted from the post-SIR electoral rolls. The revised rolls stood at 6.77 crore on April 7 after all supplementary lists were released, down from 7.66 crore before the SIR began.

More than 58 lakh registered voters marked as absent, shifted, dead or duplicate were deleted from the rolls when the Election Commission released the draft list on December 16. On February 28, preliminary rolls were issued, in which around 60 lakh voters were placed under adjudication and over 5 lakh were deleted.