A resident of Ashoknagar in North 24-Parganas, Rama Dutta, reached the Barasat court compound around 7am on Thursday. Despite her advanced age, Rama stood in the sun waiting to hand over documents to the district magistrate's office to prove her claim as a genuine voter.
Rama's name is missing from the preliminary final roll published on February 28, and that has compelled her to stand in the queue for hours.
Rama's case is a curious one, as she comes from a family that has served the army for three generations. Shreya Dutta, who had accompanied her mother-in-law to the DM's office, said that Rama's father, her husband and son had served the army.
“In 2002, my mother-in-law Rama Dutta’s name was on the voter list. Her father, husband and son — all three were in the Indian Army. Nevertheless, her name has been deleted. I don’t know whose fault it is, but this is sheer harassment of an ailing elderly woman," Shreya said.
With uncertainty mounting over the fate of a few lakhs of voters excluded from the preliminary final electoral roll, anxiety among residents across several districts of Bengal has become increasingly visible even before the formal announcement of the Assembly polls.
The unease was evident on Thursday at the North 24-Parganas district headquarters in Barasat, where close to 10,000 people from different parts of the district gathered in long queues to submit fresh applications seeking their enrolment as voters.
Clutching bundles of documents and identity proofs, many of them stood for hours with visible concern on their faces.
Several had travelled overnight from remote corners of the district, such as Taki, Hingalganj, Bagda and other far-flung areas, reaching Barasat as early as 4am to file their petitions. Their names had been deleted from the preliminary final voters’ list published on February 28 following the special intensive revision (SIR) exercise, and they were now rushing to meet the Election Commission’s 15-day window for submitting fresh claims.
The scene outside the DM's office resembled a makeshift camp of anxious citizens waiting to reclaim what they described as their fundamental democratic right.
While Rama stood in the queue even at 4pm, the case of Bagda resident Bishwanath Bain is no different. Bain, who also belongs to a family with a military background, said the deletion of his name had bewildered him.
“My father served in the army. My name was on the 2002 voter list, but my name was deleted,” he said, holding the documents he hoped would help restore his status as a voter.
Vijay Bhowmik from Habra shared the same sense of despair after discovering that his name, too, had disappeared from the electoral roll.
“I was a voter in 2002. Yet my name has been deleted. That is why I have been standing in line since morning,” he said, pointing out that many others in the queue had similar stories to tell.
According to several applicants, numerous names have been removed from the list despite the presence of parents or family members in the benchmark voters’ list of 2002, which has been widely used as a reference during the SIR exercise. In many cases, they claimed, some members of a family remain on the list while others have been excluded despite clear lineage links, creating confusion and raising fears not only about losing the right to vote but also about the potential denial of government benefits tied to electoral identity.
Officials from the district administration said the applications would be examined in accordance with the prescribed procedures. An official attached to the election cell of North 24-Parganas stated that the submitted documents would be scrutinised again to determine whether the applicants could retain or regain their status as voters.
A senior official from the office of the chief electoral officer in Calcutta also sought to allay fears about the process.
“Most of the persons whose names were excluded were called for the hearing. During the hearings, the electoral registration officers (EROs) and AEROs scrutinised all documents and removed the names of the voters for definite reasons. However, if any name is mistakenly deleted, there is a process to reinstate it. Such voters can submit claims and objections within the next 15 days. So no person should be worried at all,” the official said.
Yet, on the ground, the mood among many of those waiting outside the Barasat office reflected more despair than reassurance. With the Assembly election schedule expected to be announced soon, several applicants feared that the time available for review might be too short for their names to be restored before polling.
“The time is very short. There are still about 60 lakh names either deleted or put under adjudication. But the poll is set to be announced soon. In such a short period, there is very little possibility that all names will be reinstated in the voters’ list again,” said Vijay Bhowmik of Habra, echoing a concern widely shared among those who had travelled miles to stand in line in the hope that their voice in the coming election would not be lost.