Ghostly Incidents In West Bengal: 71 Excluded, Tribunal Reinstates 525 Voter Names
Regarding the Special Intensive Revision of voter lists in West Bengal, significant disparities and statistical challenges have emerged between the data from the Right to Information and the actual tribunal proceedings. The Election Commission of India has been instructed by the Supreme Court to produce a comprehensive category-specific analysis of tribunal appeals, clearly separating applications for name restoration from objections to the participation of other people.
The number of rehabilitated voters far exceeded the entire number of exclusions in certain assembly seats, according to RTI data that show shocking differences. 71 votes were dismissed, and 525 names were restored in Manbazar, Purulia, and 393 voters were disqualified, and 1,495 were restored in Amta, Howrah. Sonarpur Uttar had 4,270 disqualifications and 7,022 reinstatements; Kashipur, Tara, and Binpur all had similar anomalies. According to commission data, 4,874 people from these six seats had their names restored even though they had never been first dismissed.
The Commission combined two different datasets- those who appealed and succeeded after deletion and those who maintained their status by disputing challenges- to create this statistical confusion. Only 7,85,691 appeals were submitted out of 15,06,192 voters who were found to be disqualified throughout 124 seats, leaving 7,20,501 cases unchallenged. Only 13.7% of the 55,391 voters in Lalgola who were disqualified, including 55,123 Muslims, appealed, and only six identities were restored. Similar minimal recovery rates were seen in Bhagabangola and Raghunathganj, mostly due to allegations that thousands of impacted residents were disqualified without proper notice or valid justification.
The data’s trustworthiness is further damaged by massive district-level inconsistencies, which can be seen in 23 of the state’s 24 districts. While single-seat Kalimpong records range from 3,638 to 44,698 appeals, Malda district records reveal disparate appeal counts of 5,31,149 in one portion and 6,85,341 in another. In Onda, 10,489 files were registered against 114 disqualifications, while in Bankura, 6,533 disqualifications encountered 1,61,434 applications, or 25 filings per disqualified voter. Rather than people only preserving their own right to vote, these numbers show that competing political groups took full use of the procedure to remove opponents.
In seats where the percentage of Muslims disqualified was less than 50%, 178 files were filed for every 100 cancelations, but only 111 files were submitted for seats where the percentage was more than 90%. These demographic differences further show systemic manipulation. Due to unclear records, it is now difficult to confirm the number of legitimate voters who were able to regain their right to vote before elections. The only way to settle this complicated administrative and democratic dilemma, according to legal experts and election observers, is to fully provide the category-wise data that the Supreme Court has ordered.
Source: The Wire
