The preliminary “final” list of the special intensive revision (SIR) of the poll rolls, published by the Election Commission on Saturday, revealed that nearly one-third of 60 lakh-plus voters pending adjudication are from two Bangladesh-bordering, minority-dominated districts — Murshidabad and Malda.

On Saturday, Bengal chief electoral officer (CEO) Manoj Agarwal told newspersons that the total number of cases pending adjudication across Bengal was 60,06,675.

He said that these names could be included in the final electoral roll if the judicial officers resolved these cases through the verification process.

According to statistics, in Malda — one of the Bangladesh-bordering districts with around 52 per cent minority population — the total number of voters as of Saturday is 29,86,203, among whom 8,28,080 are pendingadjudication.

In Murshidabad, also a Bangladesh-bordering district with around 66 per cent minority population, the total number of voters is 54,75,265, of which 11,21,205 are pending adjudication.

“If you add the number of voters pending adjudication in these two districts, it would be around 20 lakh. These two districts thus contribute nearly one-third of the total number in this category across 23 districts, which is very surprising,” said an official.

In other Bangladesh-bordering districts as well, the number of voters pending adjudication is higher than in districts in central Bengal like Jhargram.

In Nadia and North Dinajpur, which border Bangladesh, the numbers of pending cases under the adjudication category are 2,60,000 and 1,32,258, respectively. In South 24-Parganas, which also shares a border with Bangladesh, the number is around 5,22,042.

In contrast, Jhargram — a district in Jungle Mahal, far from the Bangladesh border and where the Muslim population is only 2 per cent — has only 6,626 voters pending adjudication.

The Trinamool Congress was quick to allege that the data from the two districts clearly showed how the Election Commission had targeted a particular community to harass them in the name of SIR. However, the party expressed hope that the judicial officers engaged in verification would understand what it described as the EC’s motive at the behest of the BJP, and clear all eligible voters.

“Data from Murshidabad and Malda clearly indicate that the target is the minority community. It would be the same in areas with a high minority population. This is nothing but harassment of common people in bordering districts who have been targeted. However, the final picture will be clear after we see how many are cleared by judicial officers during verification,” said Trinamool spokesperson Arup Chakraborty.

The Trinamool dispensation claimed that the EC’s moves — deletion of names and harassment of people in the name of logical discrepancies — would not work in the Assembly polls as the party would stand by every eligible voter whose name had been deleted or could be deleted under adjudication.

A section of Trinamool Congress leaders admitted that the huge number of Muslim voters kept under adjudication was a concern for the party. “We have come to know that at least 70 per cent of voters under that category (adjudication) belong to the minority community,” a Trinamool source said.

However, the EC is yet to provide religion or caste-based data for those in that category.

Muslims are believed to be the strong vote bank of the ruling dispensation, and the BJP also believes that even if 15 lakh of those voters are found ineligible, the saffron camp would gain significant political dividends intwo ways.

“They always vote for Trinamool. So if they are found ineligible, it would be a complete loss for Trinamool. Secondly, we can also showcase to the people of Bengal how infiltrators have been a factor in Bengal and how they have been changing the demography,” said aBJP leader.

BJP chief spokesperson Debjit Sarkar said: “Not only in Murshidabad or Malda, but we have also been claiming since the 1980s that Bangladeshi infiltrators have been changing the demography of Bengal in other bordering districts as well. If you scan from the north to the south across the border, the number in that particular category will determine the genuineness of our claim. We are waiting to see how many such ineligible voters are on the list, which will become clear once judicial officers dispose of allpending cases.”

“But we don’t want any genuine voter’s name be deleted, irrespective of religion or political affiliation,”Sarkar added.

Additional reporting by Alamgir Hossain in Behrampore, Subhasish Chaudhuri inCalcutta and our north Bengal bureau