Bengal's Voter Roll Race: CEO Confident of Form Distribution by Friday

With Thursday and Friday still in hand, less than a crore of voters in West Bengal are yet to receive the enumeration forms.

As per the figures available from the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), West Bengal, more than 6.99 crore (91.19 per cent) enumeration forms have been distributed in the state up to 8.00 p.m. on Wednesday. The total number of electors in West Bengal as per the electoral roll as on October 27 is 7,66,37,529.

The initial deadline for completing the enumeration form distribution process expired on November 11, when the distribution was not done among around 15 per cent of the total voters in the state.

Thereafter, November 14 was scheduled as the fresh deadline for completing the enumeration form distribution process.

As of November 12, the CEO's office received 1,50,734 booth-level agent (BLA) applications from different registered political parties, which include 1,49,707 BLA-1 applications and 1,087 BLA-2 applications.

A BLA-1 represents his or her political party for an Assembly constituency, while a BLA-2 represents the political party concerned for a polling booth. The maximum number of BLA applications has been received from the ruling Trinamool Congress, followed by the BJP, CPI(M), and Congress.

The first stage of the three-stage SIR in West Bengal started on November 4. The entire process is expected to be completed by March next year. The last time the SIR was conducted in West Bengal was in 2002.

Voters whose names or their parents' names were not in the 2002 voter list will have to submit any of the 11 documents specified by the Commission to retain their names in the electoral rolls.

Voters whose names or their parents' names were included in the 2002 list will have to furnish any one of the 11 identity documents, identified by the Election Commission of India (ECI).

- IANS