Former MP Tarun Mondal Dropped from Bengal Voter List After Revision

Former Lok Sabha MP Tarun Mondal has been dropped from West Bengal’s voter list following the latest revision of electoral rolls by the Election Commission. He had won from Bengal’s Jaynagar Lok Sabha seat in 2009 on a Socialist Unity Centre of India (SUCI) ticket, with backing from the Congress-Trinamool alliance.

Tarun Mondal, a doctor and resident of the South Howrah Assembly constituency, was previously registered as a voter under Booth Number 279. In the revised rolls, his name has been moved from the “under adjudication” category to the “exclusion” list. However, his wife Mahua, whose name was also under scrutiny, has been retained as a valid voter in the updated list released on Friday.

The Election Commission released the third supplementary voter list under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise, released on Saturday night. The Election Commission, however, did not disclose figures for additions or deletions in this latest list.

The poll body had earlier issued the first supplementary list on March 23, followed by a second list on Friday night. Alongside, deletion lists have also been released, detailing names removed due to duplication, death, or change of residence.

The SIR exercise has significantly reduced the number of voters in the state. Around 58 lakh names were deleted during the enumeration phase, bringing the electorate down from 7.66 crore to 7.08 crore. Subsequently, the post-SIR rolls published on February 28 further brought down the number of valid voters to just over 7.04 crore, while more than 60 lakh names remain under judicial scrutiny.

West Bengal will go to polls in two phases on April 23 and April 29, with counting scheduled for May 4. The 294-seat Assembly election is set to witness a direct contest between the ruling Trinamool Congress, led by Mamata Banerjee, and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The first phase of polling will be held across districts including Purulia, Bankura, Jhargram, Birbhum, East and West Midnapore, Jalpaiguri, Maldaha, Murshidabad, North and South Dinajpur, West Bardhaman, Darjeeling, Coochbehar, Alipurduar, and Kalimpong. The second phase will cover East Bardhaman, Nadia, North and South 24 Parganas, Howrah, Hooghly, and Kolkata.​