Fresh Bengal Elections Would Be Warranted If Mass Deletions Affected Constituency-Level Results: Ex-EC Member Ashok Lavasa

Former Election Commissioner Ashok Lavasa said that if mass deletions affected results in individual constituencies in West Bengal, fresh Assembly elections would be warranted.

In an exclusive interview with ‘The Free Press Journal’, Lavasa said that in West Bengal, 60 lakh people flagged for logical discrepancies were placed under adjudication.

“The ECI knew elections were close and that adjudication could not finish in time, so it adopted a procedure that could not be completed,” Lavasa said. “The Supreme Court appointed about 700 judicial officers, who found 33 lakh of the 60 lakh wrongly flagged and restored them. About 27 lakh remained excluded.”

‘Remaining Cases Would Take 12 Years’

Lavasa further noted that of 27.6 lakh people affected, 22.5 lakh have appealed. “The appellate tribunals have decided only 1.26 lakh cases, and 93 per cent of those were found wrongly deleted. At this pace, the remaining cases would take about 12 years.” 

The former EC member urged the Supreme Court to consider a commission of inquiry to assess how mass deletions affected results in individual constituencies in West Bengal. “If a link is established, fresh elections there would be warranted,” he said.

The 22 lakh appeals make up about 82% of the 27 lakh voters whose names were deleted and placed under adjudication during the SIR process ahead of the Assembly elections. 

The Election Commission had last month provided these figures to the Supreme Court. The poll panel had made the statement in a reply to an application filed by Derek O’Brien, an MP from the Trinamool Congress faction led by former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.