Hasen Ali, 26, has seen just about everything. He lost his home and shops in an eviction drive nearly two years ago. His younger brother, 19-year-old Haidar Ali, was killed in police firing on protesters allegedly clashing with government personnel carrying out the eviction drive. In four nightmarish days, his family of 10 saw their lives disrupted in ways they could never have imagined.
Hasen’s miseries continue — he and his family, who had voted in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, have now been struck off the voter list for the April 9 single-phase Assembly elections in Assam.
Hasen is not alone.
Around 2,000 voters from in and around Kachutali — a village of Bengali-speaking Muslims, often referred to as Miya Muslims, near Guwahati — find their names removed from the electoral rolls following the eviction exercise that began on September 9, 2024. The firing on protesters took place on September 12 that year, leaving two dead and injuring 22 government employees and 13 civilians.
The affected people now fear those working away from home within and outside the state may find their livelihoods threatened without a valid voter card, which also comes in handy as a proof of identity, age and address. There are many from the affected village who work in Delhi, Kerala and Karnataka, Ali said.
The eviction-affected area does not echo the hum of the upcoming elections, but Kachutali is back in the spotlight because of the voters who got axed.
Although their pucca home and shops have been demolished, Hasen’s family is still living with 34 other evicted families in crammed hutments spread over a three-bigha plot “without electricity and water”.
Hasen told The Telegraph: “Me and my siblings were born here. My father came here from Barpeta over 40 years ago after losing our ancestral homes to erosion. We voted in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections but our names have been deleted from the voter list now.”
Coming up on a plot of land cleared of encroachments, bang opposite the makeshift huts, is the headquarters of the 10th battalion of Assam Police in Kamrup (Metro) district, the foundation stone of which was laid by Union home minister Amit Shah on February 21. Shah had praised chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma for having “freed” 174 bighas of land from “ghuspetiyas (infiltrators)” for the infrastructure project.
According to Sarma, 708 bighas of land at Kachutali, falling under the Tribal Belt and Block category and demarcated as a protected area, have been freed from encroachers. This provision is aimed at safeguarding, among others, the land rights of the tribal population by barring the transfer of land to non-tribals.
However, Hasen said the administration had earlier provided them with electricity and schooling facilities. “A government lower primary school was demolished during the drive. Electricity to the area was cut on the first day of the eviction,” he said.
Talep Ali, 35, M. Khaleque Ali, 75, and Akbar Ali, 60, joined Hasen in describing how they had knocked on all possible doors to get enlisted after the final electoral rolls were published after the special revision on February 10, but to no avail.
About 100 metres away, another 74 families live in similar pitiable conditions.
Imam Sakib Ali, 28, another of the evictees, said: “If we can’t vote, our future is dark. Our online applications for re-inclusion through Form 6 have been rejected. When we approach officials, they are not of any help. We are also Indians. We have all the papers but they ask for documents dating back to 1923 (the year the area was declared a tribal belt),” he said.
Most of those evicted are from Darrang, Morigaon and Barpeta districts.
Sakib said: “They (officials) tell us to return to our original place but we have nothing there. We are completely at a loss.”
Booth-level officer (BLO) J. Kakaty said: “Around 1,400 people have been removed from the voter list after the eviction. They were asked to return to their original place and get enlisted or produce documents from 1923. They will not be able to vote this time.”
A BLO is a local government or semi-government official who is familiar with the local electors and plays a key role during the revision of electoral rolls by collecting actual field information in the area assigned to them.
Those deleted got a month to appeal, but most Kachutali voters have failed to make the cut this time, the BLO said, adding that they have been shown as permanently shifted. Their names have been dropped from the polling booths they used to cast their vote from, the BLO said, requesting not to be identified.
The names of 2,43,485 people have been removed across Assam from the final voter list because they are either dead or have permanently shifted.
Kachutali is not an isolated case. The names of around 5,000 evicted persons have also been struck off the electoral rolls from many areas in Dhubri and Golaghat districts.
Eviction under the Sarma-led government in the state has left around 50,000 homeless and six dead, the majority of whom are Bengali-speaking Muslims or Miyas, often vilified as undocumented migrants from present-day Bangladesh.
The BJP-led government has made evicting infiltrators a key poll plank. According to Sarma, his government has freed 1.5 lakh bighas from encroachment, mostly from Miya Muslims, and intends to take back another 5 lakh bighas if the BJP retains power for a third term.
While senior BJP leaders have been flagging the eviction issue in poll rallies, tying it to the government’s effort to protect the identity of the indigenous people, Opposition leaders have slammed the ruling dispensation for carrying out the drive without rehabilitating the affected first.
Raijor Dal chief and sitting MLA Akhil Gogoi told this newspaper while campaigning that the BJP-led government was using eviction “to polarise the voters”.
“We are not against eviction. We will also carry out eviction wherever required once we win the polls, but only after rehabilitating the affected,” Gogoi said.
Gauhati High Court advocate Zunaid Khalid said the only remedy for the affected was to move the high court or the Supreme Court.
For now, the wait for the affected continues.