Kolkata, Feb 5 (IANS) With just three days left for the deadline for completion of the hearing sessions on claims and objections on the draft voters’ list in West Bengal to expire, hearings for around 15 lakh voters will have to be completed in these three days to stick to the schedule. The deadline for completion of the hearing session is February 7, and the final voters’ list is scheduled to be published on February 14.

Going by the trend of daily hearings so far, the Election Commission of India (ECI) is confident of meeting the deadline.

“Currently, 6,500 hearing centres are operating where such hearing sessions are being conducted. This means that each hearing centre will have to handle roughly around 76 hearings a day for the next three days, for the process to be completed. This is not at all a herculean task,” said an insider from the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), West Bengal.

This also means that the hearing sessions will be complete well before the next hearing on the SIR at the three-judge Bench of the Supreme Court on February 9.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is also expected to argue the matter in front of the three-judge Bench as she had done on Wednesday.

The hearing session of the SIR exercise in West Bengal started on December 27 last year. Though the initial process was slow, later the exercise gained momentum following an increase in the number of officials at each hearing centre and also a proportionate increase in the number of hearing centres.

After the publication of the final voters’ list on February 14, the full Bench of the ECI will come to West Bengal to take stock of the situation. Soon after that, the dates for the crucial Assembly elections will be announced by the Commission.

The CEO’s office had already given a suggestion to the ECI for completing the election process in a maximum of two phases, as opposed to seven to eight phases in the last few elections in the state.

It is expected that the elections will be over by the end of April, and by the first week of May, the new state Cabinet will be formed.

–IANS

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