K J Rao to lead second EC team to Bengal today

EC sources insisted that the observers were changed ‘‘purely for administrative reasons’’ as some of them have serious ‘‘personal problem’’. But it is well-known that a cold war has ensued between the ruling party in West Bengal and the EC on its decision to send observers to the state time and again.

But the exercise has not been without results. In a cleansing of the electoral rolls that the EC undertook in the state, over five lakh names of dead and bogus from Bengal list have been deleted. And this may not the last tally as rigorous work on the rolls, to be finalised by February 15, are still on.

‘‘The deletions have taken place across the state and in no particular part or district. There are three categories under which not non-existent voters appear (on the list),’’ the sources said.

Of the five lakh names that have been deleted from the rolls, the sources said, three lakh were dead or who had shifted house but whose names continued to be part of the electoral rolls.

Giving the credit for cleaning the rolls to Chief Election Commissioner B B Tandon, officials said he made it the primary focus of this round of assembly elections in Bengal.

But the EC officials denied the charge that Bengal has been converted into a case study for the EC. ‘‘The same process is being followed in other states, including Tamil Nadu and Assam,’’ they added.

It was pointed out the largest deletion of dead and bogus voters took place in Andhra Pradesh. But, it is in West Bengal that the EC has detected large number of voters—over 2.5 lakh—who are entered their names in the rolls with the help of fake documents, like false photo-identity cards.

It took K J Rao to bust the racket of fake card. When he managed to detect them in Nadia, the rest of the observers were alerted and they too unearthed large number of such fake entries.