The completion of the enumeration process for the special intensive revision of electoral rolls in Bengal has left Basudeb Das a worried man; not for whether he will get to vote, but over the small plot of land and house he owns.
The 70-year-old labourer is the father of two sons and a daughter and lives in Purba Gobindapur in Kakdwip, South 24 Parganas, around 87 km from Calcutta.
While the special intensive revision (SIR) process was on, Basudeb was stunned when he was informed that he has at least two more sons and probably a daughter as well.
One of his newfound sons is Sanchay Das, a South 24 Parganas Zilla Parishad member from the Trinamool Congress, elected from the Pratapadityanagar Gram Panchayat where Basudeb is also a voter.
70-year-old Basudeb Das shows his voter ID Card (Soumyajit Dey)
In the electoral roll of 2002, when the SIR was carried out the last time in Bengal, Sanjay Das is mentioned as Bausdeb Das’s son. The 2024 voter list for the Lok Sabha election lists Sanchay Das as Basudeb’s son.
Both Sanjay and Sanchay have the same voter-id card number.
The electoral rolls of 2002 uploaded on the Bengal chief electoral officer’s website mentions the name, gender, age, father’s name and the voter-card number. The 2024 list carries a photograph of the voter as well.
“I have lived here all my life. Everyone in the village knows I have two sons and a daughter,” Basudeb said, sitting on the porch of his half-built house.
“The neighbours told me I was named as the father of Sanjay alias Sanchay Das, the Zilla Parishad member.
“What if he claims my property after my death? This is all that I have. I want this to be settled before my death. He is not my son. How can I be his father?”
Basudeb’s eldest son, Shibshankar, works in a factory in Gujarat. The younger son, Gurupada, does odd jobs in Kakdwip. Basudeb’s daughter, Champa, is a homemaker.
Basudeb is not concerned with the SIR exercise or the alleged undocumented migrants from Bangladesh who have settled on this side of the border and have over the years procured Indian documents including the electoral photo identity card (EPIC).
When he became aware of his newfound sons on the voting list, the 70-year-old approached teachers in the local school with his problem. Then he decided to knock on the doors of the block development officer (BDO) and the sub-divisional officer (SDO) of Kakdwip.
“After downloading the 2002 electoral roll I came to know a Bangladeshi resident, Sanjay Das alias Sanchay Das, has enrolled himself in the voters’ list and named me as his father,” Basudeb said.
“I have two sons, Shibshankar and Gurupada, and a daughter, Champa. I don’t have any son named Sanjay or Sanchay,” Basudeb wrote in his complaint, along with the EPIC numbers of himself and Sanchay Das.
“I would request you to kindly probe the matter to ensure that I or my children do not face any legal problem in the future.”
Basudeb wrote the letter to the BDO on 26 November while the SIR process was on, and another letter to the Kakdwip SDO. This week he also went to the Bengal chief electoral officer’s office in Calcutta.
Basudeb's letter to the BDO (Soumyajit Dey)
“I have not heard anything from any of the officials. Amaar bhoy korchhe [I am scared],” he said.
After the completion of the SIR exercise, around 1.67 crore voters have come under the scanner of the Election Commission for “logical flaws” in the submitted enumeration forms.
At 8.16 lakh, the maximum cases of dead voters, missing voters and duplicate voters have been detected in South 24 Parganas, the home district of Basudeb.
Around 24,21,133 voters in Bengal in the 2002 voters list have each been tagged as a parent by more than six voters in the 2025 electoral rolls.
In Basudeb’s case, so far five voters have tagged him as a parent.
The Trinamool Zilla Parishad member Sanchay Das admitted he is originally from Bangladesh and denied everything else, including that he was ever known as Sanjay.
“My name is Sanchay. Sanjay was never my name. My father Basudeb Das is no more. I came from Bangladesh over four decades ago when I was a young boy. I completed my Madhyamik, higher secondary and graduation from here. I am a citizen of India,” he told The Telegraph Online.
“A complaint has been lodged and the Election Commission is probing this matter. It would not be proper to make any statements at this moment. The EC should do its job. All I can tell you is many of my immediate and extended family members live here and they are all Indian citizens,” he said.
“I am a political person, a public representative; and I have rivals.”
Since it became imminent that the SIR exercise would be carried out in Bengal, BJP leaders have been claiming that over 1 crore voters would be deleted from the rolls.
Sanchay Das should have had nothing to fear, given that he falls in the category of migrants favoured by the BJP.
“We have nothing against Sanchay Das as an individual. As a Hindu from Bangladesh he is welcome in India,” said Abhijit Mandal, convenor of the BJP’s Kakdwip Assembly seat.
“All we are demanding is that he should follow the procedure to become an Indian citizen. We have been holding a CAA [Citizenship Amendment Act] camp here. He can apply and become a citizen. We will extend all help. After becoming a citizen, he is free to cast his vote, contest polls.”
Mandal said the matter has been brought to the attention of the local authorities representing the central poll panel.
“The EC would have the records from 2002. Only the commission can clear the air on who Sanjay Das or Sanchay Das is,” said Mandal.
Sources in the commission said a probe has been ordered.