Kolkata, Dec. 2 -- The Election Commission of India (ECI) expects that roughly 43.30 lakh names will be dropped from West Bengal's draft voters' list, scheduled for publication on December 16, based on the current pace of digitising enumeration forms submitted by booth-level officers (BLOs).
Officials in the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), West Bengal, cautioned that this is an evolving estimate. Since the projection reflects the digitisation status only till Monday evening, the exclusion figure may rise as more forms are processed.
West Bengal's electorate, according to the roll updated on October 27, stands at 7,66,37,529.
According to senior CEO office functionaries, the bulk of the names marked for exclusion, around 21.4...