West Bengal elections: 5 lakh new voters enter roll, take state count to 6.82 cr

KOLKATA: The EC has reported a fresh rise in the number of voters in Bengal, with nearly 5 lakh names being added to the electoral roll in the past month, taking the total count to 6.8 crore. Bengal, which had over 7.6 crore voters during the pre-SIR period, thus witnessed a 10.9% drop (83.8 lakh) in the final voters' number as of now.

According to official sources, around 7 lakh applications were submitted through Form 6 between the draft publication of the electoral roll on Dec 16 and the last date of nomination for the first two phases of polling. Of these, 6,96,824 new voters were added till April 9, the last date of nomination for the second phase.

Officials said that on Feb 28, when the final roll was published, 1,88,707 new voters had been included. This means that nearly 5 lakh voters have been added since then.

District-wise, most additions were recorded in North 24 Parganas, Howrah, Hooghly, Kolkata and East Midnapore. North 24 Parganas alone saw over 71,000 new voters, while Kolkata added around 44,000 names. Most of the new entrants are first-time voters, though some previously excluded names have also been restored through Form 6, sources said.

The total electorate in the state now stands at 6,82,51,008, with the figure likely to increase slightly after tribunal disposals. Among 6.8 crore voters, close to 3.5 crore are male and a little over 3.3 crore are female voters.

However, the EC noted a continued decline in overall voter numbers following the SIR. From an earlier 7.6 crore voters in the pre-SIR period, around 58.2 lakh ASD (absent, shifted, dead/duplicate) voters' names were deleted in the draft roll, bringing the figure down to a little over 7 crore. The current tally indicates a net decline of 83,86,521 voters compared to the pre-SIR roll.

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