Kolkata, Feb 9 (NationPress) As a significant hearing is set to take place at the Supreme Court regarding the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in West Bengal on Monday, uncertainty lingers over whether the deadline for addressing claims and objections to the draft voters’ list will be extended, following the expiration of the deadline at 12 midnight on February 7.

Senior officials from the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of West Bengal remained in their offices late into the night on both Saturday and Sunday, anticipating communication regarding the extension from the Election Commission of India (ECI) in New Delhi.

Despite their hopes, no notification was received. On February 6, CEO Manoj Kumar Agarwal formally requested a seven-day extension of the deadline. Currently, the final voter list is expected to be published on February 14.

It remains to be seen if this date will also be delayed, depending on the length of the extension for claims and objections to the draft voters’ list. Decisions are pending regarding whether the extension will apply only to around 15 Assembly constituencies or if it will be a statewide extension.

Insiders from the CEO’s office indicated that even without formal approval from the ECI for the deadline extension, district magistrates and electoral officers in the affected areas have been instructed to proceed with the hearings in districts where the process has not yet concluded.

The Assembly constituencies primarily affected are located in the minority-dominated regions of Malda, South 24 Parganas, and Kolkata (Uttar). “While there was limited hearing activity in these regions on Sunday, the process will resume at its regular pace starting Monday,” an insider stated.

Additionally, over 400,000 voters have been identified as eligible for removal from the final voters’ list due to their absence during hearing sessions related to claims and objections, despite multiple notifications.

Of these 400,000 voters marked for deletion, 50,000 are classified as “unmapped,” and around 350,000 are categorized as “logical discrepancy” cases. Unmapped voters are those who could not establish a connection with the 2002 voters’ list through “self-mapping” or “progeny mapping.” In contrast, “logical discrepancy” cases involve unusual data found in family trees during “progeny” mapping.

When the draft voters’ list was released in December, a total of 5,820,899 voters were removed due to being identified as deceased, relocated, or duplicates. The final number of deletions will be confirmed once the final voters’ list is published on February 14.