West Bengal Congress Demands Accessible Electoral Grievance Mechanism

Senior Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Sunday urged West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari to establish appellate tribunals in every block of Murshidabad to assist residents whose names were allegedly removed from the voters’ list during the recently concluded Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.

In a letter addressed to the Chief Minister, Chowdhury claimed that Murshidabad recorded the highest number of deleted voter names in the state, alleging that more than five lakh voters had been affected by the revision process.

The Congress leader expressed concern that economically weaker citizens, daily wage earners, elderly people and physically infirm residents would face significant difficulties in travelling long distances to access appellate tribunals for restoration or verification of their electoral records.

He appealed to the state government to decentralise the grievance redressal process by establishing tribunals at the block level to ensure easier access for affected voters.

The Special Intensive Revision process is carried out periodically to update electoral rolls by removing duplicate, shifted or ineligible names and adding eligible voters. However, political parties and civil society groups often raise concerns regarding wrongful deletions and accessibility of correction mechanisms.

The issue has sparked political attention in West Bengal as parties continue to monitor electoral roll revisions ahead of future elections in the state.