Kolkata, Nov 24 (IANS): The Election Commission of India (ECI) has estimated that over 10 lakh names will be deleted from the voters’ list in West Bengal after the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) by the commission in the state is completed.

The ECI’s estimate follows an evaluation of enumeration forms already collected by two-level officers (BOs/BLOs) and uploaded to the BLO App, an insider from the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), West Bengal, said.

The insider added that the names to be deleted will include the dead, duplicate entries (that is, voters whose names appear at two places simultaneously), voters who have permanently shifted to another state, and missing or untraceable voters.

“The maximum deletions will be in the category of dead voters, which will be around 6.5 lakh,” the CEO’s office insider said. “The process of collecting the duly filled enumeration forms and uploading them in the BLO App is ongoing, and the exact number of names to be deleted from the voters’ list will be known only after the process is completed and the draft voters’ list is published by the commission.”

On Monday, the CEO of West Bengal, Manoj Kumar Agarwal, appealed to voters who are yet to submit their duly filled enumeration forms to BLOs to do so at the earliest.

He reminded voters that the last date for submission of the duly filled enumeration forms is December 4, and that the deadline will not be extended. Those who do not submit the duly filled enumeration forms will have their names automatically deleted from the voters’ list.

The draft list will be published on December 9.

Addressing reports about the deaths of three BLOs so far in West Bengal — reportedly linked to SIR workload — Agarwal said that the ECI had received detailed reports on the matter from the respective district magistrates, who are also the district electoral officers for the districts concerned.

“The contribution of the BLOs in the SIR exercise in West Bengal is really commendable. In the true sense, the BLOs are the real heroes in the revision exercise,” Agarwal said.

–IANS

src/pgh