Almost 62 lakh names have been deleted from the final voters’ list of West Bengal post the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, thus showing a fall of 8 per cent in the total electorate from 7.66 crore before the purification of the rolls. The final list of 7.04 crore electors was released by the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of the poll-bound state on Saturday.According to the final list, there are 7,04,59,285 electors, which is 8 per cent or almost 62 lakh less than the 7,66,37,529 voters registered in the state prior to the commencement of the SIR. The precise figure of voters who have been excluded from the final list is 61,78,245.However, the list includes the names of 60.06 lakh voters who have been flagged for review by Supreme Court-appointed judicial officers. Until their names are cleared and published in supplementary lists, these electors will not be able to cast their votes.”The fate of these voters hangs in balance and there is a likelihood that not all of them may clear the scrutiny,” said EC sources.West Bengal is now the third state with the highest number of voters’ names deleted after two rounds of revision of electoral rolls across the country.The volume of deletions can be juxtaposed with the issue of illegal immigrants being a constant factor in West Bengal, which shares its boundary with Bangladesh.The BJP-led NDA government at the Centre has been bullish about removing infiltrators from the state if the party comes to power in West Bengal after the Assembly elections, which are due in April-May this year. Both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah have been vocal on the issue.Tamil Nadu tops the list of states with the highest number of deletion of voters after the completion of the SIR, with 74 lakh names deleted from the final electors’ list, followed by Gujarat with 68 lakh deletions, with West Bengal being third (62 lakh deletions) and Bihar with 47 lakh deleted voters.The UT of Lakshadweep has registered the lowest deletions of voters at 206.While Bihar SIR was the first such exercise of voters’ list revision in the country last year, in the second round, nine states and three UTs underwent the exercise. Of these, now only Uttar Pradesh’s final voters’ list is awaited and it is expected to be released on April 10.The nine states, which are being covered under the SIR 2.0 are Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Goa, Uttar Pradesh and Assam. The three UTs being covered are Puducherry, Lakshadweep and Andaman & Nicobar.Tamil Nadu witnessed 11.5 per cent fall in its voters’ base after almost 74 lakh electors were deleted from the state’s list after the SIR. Of the 6,41,14,587 voters in the state prior to the SIR, the number fell by 74 lakh to 5,67,07,380 after the release of final list.According to the EC, Gujarat’s total electorate stood at 5,08,43,436 before the exercise and declined to 4,40,30,725 after the revision, resulting in deletion of 68,12,711 names — a net change of 13.40 per cent.The percentage of net change in the number of electors during the SIR exercise was highest in Andaman and Nicobar Islands at 16.87 per cent, followed by Gujarat at 13.40 per cent.