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The Election Commission on September 18 told the Supreme Court that 22.21 lakh electors whose names were deleted in Bengal have filed appeals seeking their inclusion in the electoral rolls.

That is more than three times the seven-lakh figure cited by Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari which The Wire had reported on early in August. It represents about 82% of the 27.16 lakh electors deleted following the special intensive revision’s adjudication process. 

The disclosure assumes particular significance because Adhikari had used the seven-lakh figure not simply as a statistic about the appeal process, but while publicly raising questions about the citizenship claims of those he said had not appealed.

At the launch of the Census exercise on August 1, Adhikari said, “Of the 27 lakh names deleted after adjudication, only 7 lakh have filed appeals. It remains to be seen whether those who did not claim voter status will now claim citizenship.”

He also said that around 20 lakh people had not responded and “themselves haven’t claimed to be voters”. 

Five days later, The Telegraph reported a similar number, quoting a senior state government official as saying that a compilation of reports received from the districts showed that only around seven lakhs of the 27 lakh deleted electors........

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