Kolkata, Feb 14 (IANS) The hearing phase on claims and objections to the draft voters’ list in West Bengal concluded on Saturday evening, with 4.98 lakh additional names identified as eligible for deletion from the final voters’ list.

These 4.98 lakh voters are those who abstained from attending the hearing sessions despite repeated notices being served to them and have therefore been found eligible for exclusion from the final voters’ list.

The number of such voters who had abstained from the hearing sessions stood at 6.25 lakh till Friday evening.

“However, on the last day of the hearing, over 1,00,000 voters attended the sessions, reducing the figure to 4.98 lakh on Saturday evening,” said a source in the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), West Bengal.

Earlier, during the enumeration phase, names of more than 58 lakh voters — including deceased, duplicate and shifted voters — were found ineligible and were excluded from the draft voters’ list published in December last year.

The additional 4.98 lakh names identified during the hearing phase will now be added to that number.

However, the final figure of deleted names will be clear only after the publication of the final voters’ list on February 28.

“The scrutiny of supporting identity documents submitted by voters who attended the hearings will continue till February 21. During this process, names of voters who submitted invalid or unverified identity documents may also be excluded. The final picture will be clear after the publication of the final voters’ list on February 28,” the CEO’s office source said.

It is learnt that the highest number of voters who abstained from appearing at the hearing sessions was in North 24 Parganas district, at around 1.38 lakh, followed by South 24 Parganas with about 46,000 and Kolkata (Dakshin) electoral district with around 22,000.

The lowest number of absentees was reported from Kalimpong district, at just 440.

A day after the publication of the final voters’ list on February 28, a full bench of the Election Commission of India (ECI) will visit West Bengal for two days to review the post-Special Intensive Revision (SIR) situation, following which the schedule for the crucial Assembly elections due later this year is expected to be announced.

West Bengal Chief Electoral Officer Manoj Kumar Agarwal has already recommended to the ECI that the Assembly elections be conducted in a single phase. However, the final decision will be taken by the Commission.

In recent elections, polling in West Bengal was conducted in multiple phases, typically ranging from seven to eight phases.

The last time Assembly elections in West Bengal were held in a single phase was in 2001.

–IANS

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