Only 1,468 voters restored for Bengal’s final phase rolls. Poll duty staff among the excluded

Majibar Rahman is helping others vote. “But as a first polling officer myself, I am unable to cast my vote,” says Rahman, a history teacher from Krishnanagar who is on poll duty in the Ranaghat assembly for West Bengal’s second phase of assembly elections on Wednesday.

As Bengal heads into the final phase covering 142 assembly seats, appellate tribunals have approved the inclusion of just 1,468 voters out of approximately 12.8 lakh, including Rahman, who were deleted after adjudication. In the first phase, only 139 deleted voters were reportedly reinstated. For the lakhs still waiting, the message is hard to misread: the window has all but closed.

What makes the situation especially stark is who is caught in it. Among those unable to vote in Wednesday’s election are government school teachers and employees who have spent years facilitating the poll process on behalf of the Election Commission of India. 

‘ECI puropuri byartho’

Ajijul Hoque has been a presiding officer in elections since 1998. A teacher at Krishnanagar Collegiate Government School for 30 years, the 57-year-old has overseen Lok Sabha, panchayat and bypoll elections across the district. This week, he has been posted as presiding officer in Palashipara assembly. It is the first time he will not be able to vote.

“ECI puropuri byartho, full byartho,” he says. The ECI is completely futile, completely futile.

Same is the case for Alauddin Mallick. An assistant teacher at Lolia Bari Senior Madrasa, he completed poll duty as a presiding officer in Malda on April 23. Mallick argues there is no logic in a process that asks him to oversee a polling booth while denying him the right to vote – his assembly constituency was Harischandrapur.

“Jodi amader moton loker naam baad jaay tale Bharatiya kara?” asks Ajijul. (If people like us are getting deleted, then who even counts as Indian?)

Both Ajijul and Alauddin’s names were deleted citing name discrepancies from the 2002 rolls. They were among 71 petitioners who moved the Supreme Court, 66 of whom were government employees on election duty. Their petition argued that they were not new applicants seeking inclusion but existing voters whose names were removed after the Special Intensive Revision exercise – and that by deleting them, the EC has placed them in an unusual position: trusted enough to conduct the election, but not recognised enough to vote in it.

On April 24, the Supreme Court declined to entertain the writ petition, noting it had already requested the appellate tribunals to give the petitioners an out-of-turn hearing for early adjudication of their appeals.

The long road to the tribunal

For ordinary citizens, the fight to vote has become a costly and exhausting ordeal.

Nasima Bibi, 37, travelled from Hooghly to the appellate tribunal in Joka earlier this month. She left her village before 6:30 in the morning on April 17, making her way by e-rickshaw, train and bus through the April heat, only to be turned away at the door. The trip cost her over Rs 300. She came home disappointed and fell ill, days before the election in her Pandua assembly seat.

“Amar dike ami kono chestha truthi rakhini, online korechi, offline korechi, Kolkata gachi. Ami jothestho korechi, er pore ami kono chestha korar jaiga nei,” she says, her name not making it to the supplementary list. (I left no stone unturned from my side. I tried online, I tried offline, I went to Kolkata. I did enough. After this, there is nothing more I can do.)

Krishna Sarkar, 50, from Khardah assembly made multiple rounds to different offices, submitting the same documents. She only found out her name had been deleted because her daughter happened to check the voter list. When they did try to file a correction, a BLO led them to list Krishna’s brother as guardian instead of her late father, triggering a logical age-gap discrepancy that caused her name to be struck off in the first place. 

Newslaundry also spoke to two people who were successfully included in the supplementary list — one from North 24 Parganas, one from North Kolkata. One said his mother’s appeal had received no hearing at the appellate tribunal; he found out she had been reinstated only after the supplementary list was published. The other said he had filed a second appeal on April 25, and believes that is what secured his inclusion – though he too was never called for a hearing.

For many still waiting, those numbers offer little comfort.

“If only 139 names had been recovered in Phase 1, I have no hope that my name will be corrected in the voter roll,” says Ajijul. Alauddin Mallick echoed the sentiment. He says he hopes his name is included in the final list, but knows it is mathematically impossible to correct so many deletions in time.

Phone calls to the West Bengal CEO’s office remained unanswered. Newslaundry sent a questionnaire to the CEO. This report will be updated if a response is received.

Complaining about the media is easy. Why not do something to make it better? Support independent media and subscribe to Newslaundry today.