Kolkata, April 22 (IANS) Just a day before the first phase of the crucial two-phase Assembly elections in West Bengal on Thursday, only 136 names of the 27 lakh cases were cleared in the first Appellate Tribunals supplementary list of voters that the Election Commission of India (ECI) published.

At the same time, in the supplementary list, two names that the judicial officers had cleared during the judicial adjudication process were rejected by the Appellate Tribunals.

To recall, after the final voters list in West Bengal was published on February 28 this year, a little over 60 lakh names were referred for judicial adjudication, which was conducted by as many as 732 judicial officers as per the Supreme Court's order, including 100 each from neighbouring states of Jharkhand and Odisha.

At the end of the judicial adjudication, as many as 27 lakh names of the 60 lakh names referred for judicial adjudication were found excludable.

Thereafter, as per the directions of the Supreme Court, these 27 lakh cases were referred to the Appellate Tribunals. The apex court also ordered that the names cleared by the Appellate Tribunals, even a day before polling day, would be allowed to cast their votes.

So, going by that direction from the apex court, these 136 voters cleared by the Appellate Tribunals would be able to cast their votes on Thursday.

Similarly, in the case of the second phase of polls on April 29, the names that will be cleared by the Appellate Tribunals till April 28 will be able to cast their votes in the second phase.

In the first phase of polls on Thursday, polling will be conducted for 152 Assembly constituencies scattered over 16 districts. In the second phase of polling on April 29, there will be polling for the remaining 142 Assembly constituencies. The results will be declared on May 4.

--IANS

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