Suman Kanjilal, the Trinamool Congress candidate of Alipurduar, has launched a door-to-door campaign in the Alipurduar civic area to connect with residents amid rising concerns over the deletion of names from voter lists.
Over the past two days, Kanjilal, accompanied by party workers, visited households in all 20 municipal wards where voters reported their names missing from the electoral rolls.
During these visits, he assured the residents of legal assistance to file appeals before the tribunals.
The drive follows instructions from Trinamool’s national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, who has directed the party’s candidates across the state to personally reach out to individuals whose names have been deleted.
“At present, it is our moral responsibility to stand beside the people whose names have been deleted. We are following the guidelines provided by the party leadership,” he said.
According to the plan, Kanjilal and his associates are preparing a comprehensive list of affected individuals whose names are not there, even in the supplementary lists. The data, he said, would be sent to the party headquarters in Calcutta, and legal support would be extended to all those who have been impacted because of the special intensive revision (SIR) of the electoral roll.
According to party sources, a team of advocates from Alipurduar and Calcutta will assist these voters in filing applications before the tribunal. However, the legal process is expected to be complex and time-bound.
To streamline the process, Trinamool has also set up a help desk at Debdyut Bhawan in ward 10 of the town, where voters are being helped to file applications in online mode.
In Alipurduar district, around 20,000 voters remain unaccounted for, even though multiple supplementary lists have been published by the Election Commission.
On Tuesday, Alipurduar also witnessed protests by a section of such voters as they staged a road blockade near the Kaljani bridge on the Alipurduar–Falakata state highway.
The protesters alleged that their names were not included in the supplementary lists, despite submitting all necessary documents. The blockade lasted for 30 minutes, after which the demonstrators withdrew.
Leaders of the saffron camp, however, dubbed the TMC candidate’s move as an “election stunt.”
“People have realised that it is because of the non-cooperation of the state government and the shortage of manpower that a section of them are facing problems during SIR. Such election stunts would help,” said Paritosh Das, the BJP candidate of Alipurduar.