Bengal electoral rolls show 15 lakh cleared voters missing amid e-sign issues

Judicial officers in West Bengal have disposed of 37 lakh “under-adjudication” voter cases, but only 22 lakh names appear across the first two supplementary electoral rolls, leaving roughly 15 lakh cases unaccounted for due to missing e-signatures, according to a Times of India report.

The Election Commission (EC) published a third list late Saturday, but the number of names included remained unclear. “Supplementary lists will be published every day going forward,” an EC official said.

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Officials said around 60 lakh voters were initially flagged for scrutiny under a special intensive revision (SIR) of rolls, with over 700 judicial officers tasked with reviewing the cases. By March 23 evening, approximately 29 lakh cases had been cleared. Bengal CEO Manoj Agarwal noted that names carrying e-signatures until 5 pm would be included in the first supplementary list, which went live around midnight with about 10 lakh entries.

The gap persisted in the second list. “We received 12 lakh cases with e-signatures and published accordingly,” a senior EC official said on Saturday, without explaining the absence of e-signatures on the remaining 15 lakh cleared cases.

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An EC source said the digital signature functionality had been introduced late into the adjudication software, after many officers had already processed their cases. “Those cases will be routed back to the officers,” the source added.

With TOI inputs