A booth-level officer (BLO) in North 24-Parganas who kept assuring voters that their electoral rights would be retained found his own name deleted from the rolls after the first post-SIR supplementary list was published on
March 23.
Samsuzzaman Sahin is one of 42 names deleted from a booth in Kalikapur Dakshin village of the Haroa Assembly segment, a minority-dominated seat barely 45km from the heart of Calcutta. His parents have also been removed from the rolls.
“When we were listed among those with logical discrepancies, I was confident that the names would eventually be cleared. Even when the February 28 list put us under adjudication, I did not lose hope. But after I saw our names deleted, I was too stunned to speak. It was a combination of disbelief, frustration, anger and anguish,” said Samsuzzaman, who teaches physics at a government high school in Haroa.
Samsuzzaman, who turns 41 this June, uses only his first name in official records. All his documents, including his passport, list only one name.
There were 912 voters in his booth. Eighty of them were under adjudication. The March 23 list showed that 42 have been deleted.
“Many families in this locality were extremely worried despite having official documents. They saw the SIR as an attempt to harass minorities. I would keep encouraging them to stay positive. I assured them I would do my best to ensure genuine voters were not harassed. But now, I am at a loss for words. Their suspicion seems genuine,” Samsuzzaman said.
Samsuzzaman submitted his passport, Aadhaar, Madhyamik pass certificate and birth certificate at a hearing conducted in the last week of January in the presence of an assistant electoral registration officer and a micro-observer. His 76-year-old father, who earned a living as a private tutor, submitted his passport, land deed and Aadhaar card. His mother, an Anganwadi worker and a former BLO, submitted her passport, land deed and Madhyamik certificate.
His parents were allotted a parcel of land in the Left Front regime. Samsuzzaman said the deed mentions both of them as joint owners.
Initially, almost his entire family was summoned to a hearing on the grounds of logical discrepancies.
When the February 28 list was published, all the names were cleared, except Samsuzzaman and his parents, who were placed under adjudication.
The first supplementary list published on March 23 removed them from the rolls.
The Election Commission published the third post-SIR supplementary list on Saturday night. The poll panel
could not immediately confirm how many names were included in the third list. The first supplementary list had 10 lakh names, and the second had 12 lakh names. The
count combined those retained in the rolls and those removed.
The critics of the contentious SIR exercise have alleged a conspiracy designed to harass minorities and marginalised voters. But many urban Hindu voters also find
themselves removed from the rolls.
Samsuzzaman said he was diligent in discharging his duties as a BLO. He spent hours during the day distributing and collecting enumeration forms and burned the midnight oil to verify and upload the voters’ documents in the app.
“A man entrusted with verifying the electoral rolls loses his voting right. This is not merely an administrative lapse; it is a deep injustice. I will appeal against the deletions for sure. But I feel the state first used me and then discarded me,” he said.
On Saturday night, the Election Commission opened the online window for appeals by voters whose names were struck off the electoral roll after adjudication.