Sixty seven per cent of the population in India has voting rights, and therefore voters' identity cards, while that figure for Left-ruled Bengal is 58 per cent, the Election Commission has revealed. Chief Electoral Officer Debasis Sen looked rather grim when he announced the figures on Tuesday, saying the number was really low. He said, "In fact, the EC cannot interpret this data. I have asked local authorities to check if the computation has gone wrong anywhere."

EC sources said their men are out to determine the booths where there can be discrepancies. They are armed with seven computer softwares that can ferret out these errant booths, sources said.

An official of the EC's West Bengal chapter said nearly 48 lakh eligible people in Bengal are now without voting rights. He said, "There are 5.04 crore voters here. That figure will rise to 5.52 crore if the electoral rolls are revised properly."