Spike in new voter registrations in Bengal border areas

Kolkata: West Bengal CEO's office has witnessed a sharp rise in new voter registrations through Form-6 in bordering districts - North and South 24 Parganas, Nadia, and minority-dominated Malda and Murshidabad - over the past three months, people in the know told ET. The jump is as high as nine-fold, from around 100 per assembly constituency to nearly 900 a month.

A senior official in the West Bengal CEO's office said that recent data showed a sharp rise in Form-6 submissions across every assembly constituency in North and South 24 Parganas, Nadia, Uttar Dinajpur, Murshidabad, Malda and Cooch Behar. Significantly, all these districts share an international border with Bangladesh. Opposition BJP leadership has complained about demographic changes in the bordering areas for long.

Polling booths in High-Rise Buildings in Kolkata


To boost voter turnout in Kolkata and other urban pockets of West Bengal - where it trails rural areas - the Election Commission and the state CEO's office have rolled out new initiatives.

The CEO's office is planning to set up a polling booth in every high-rise building in Kolkata and other districts where the population is at least 600.

WB CEO Manoj Agarwal said the initiative will be implemented across the state in the coming assembly polls. "The EC has directed us to do so. It was tried in New Delhi during the last assembly elections and voter turnout had increased," Agarwal said.