Nervousness in CPM as EC deletes 1 million names in West Bengal

With the Commission pressing for more corrections, the ruling CPI(M) is in a flap. In the state assembly, CPI(M) MLA and former minister Narayan Biswas alleged that a concerted effort was being made to delete the names of “refugees” from electoral rolls. Some of the party’s top men were heard using similar words to describe the EC role in the state.

But the Commission seems determined to set the rolls right this time. Never before had it gone in for suo motu deletion of names on such a large scale. During the last summary revision in 2005, names deleted by the Commission totalled only 2,14,000 as against 7,80,000 already this year.

“It’s been a difficult task,” says Debasish Sen, West Bengal’s Chief Electoral Officer. The process of deletion of names depended largely on information provided by locals and neighbours. Election department officials say the visit, in two phases, by 19 EC observers was largely aimed at correcting the rolls. The Commission directed that the rolls be cross-checked with death registers of each unit— panchayats in case of villages, municipalities, corporations in case of urban and semi-urban pockets.

“Yes, it is mandatory now to have death and birth registers in villages,” says Debasish Sen. The EC directive, he says, has been implemented and proper record keeping has begun. The other interesting method adopted for verification of names on the list was “roll recital”.

Tried for the first time, it was very effective. The list was read out before the entire village and corrections made in the presence of election department staff.