The voter list revision issue has already begun to intensify the political atmosphere in the Cooch Behar district ahead of the Assembly elections, with two separate protests lined up Dinhata and Cooch Behar town
for Monday.
In Dinhata, Udayan Guha, the north Bengal development minister and MLA, has called for a mass hunger strike, alleging that many voters — including residents of erstwhile enclaves — have had their names placed under adjudication. Judicial officers will verify their documents afresh to include them as voters in the supplementary poll roll or they will be deleted.
The protest is scheduled to take place in front of the SDO’s office in Dinhata town.
Sources claim that around 35,932 voters in the Dinhata Assembly constituency alone have their names listed for adjudication. In all three Assembly constituencies of Dinhata subdivision — Dinahata, Sitai and Sitalkuchi, uncertainty surrounds 45,134 voters.
“Join the mass hunger strike to protest the conspiracy to exclude eligible voters from the electoral roll in the name of adjudication,” Guha posted on social media.
“We are organising the hunger strike against this planned attempt to remove genuine voters from the list,” he said.
Political observers believe that in the politically volatile Dinhata seat, the issue is particularly significant. In the 2021 polls, Guha lost the Dinhata seat to BJP leader Nisith Pramanik by a narrow margin of just 57 votes. However, Guha later that year reclaimed the seat in a bypoll by defeating BJP candidate Ashok Mondal by a record-breaking 1.64 lakh votes.
Leaders of the BJP, however, have dubbed Guha’s protest as “mere political drama.”
“Guha is resorting to political theatrics ahead of the polls. We firmly believe that no genuine voter would be left out during the SIR (special intensive revision) process,” said Ajay Roy, a district secretary of the BJP in Cooch Behar.
Another protest on the same issue has been scheduled for Cooch Behar town on Monday by the Nasya Sheikh Unnayan Parishad — a forum of Rajbanshi Muslims — and the All Bengal Imam Muezzin Association.
Representatives of both organisations have said they would organise a rally with around 10,000 people. It would start at the Raasmela Ground and proceed to the district magistrate’s office, where they would submit a memorandum addressed to the chief election commissioner, Gyanesh Kumar.
Aminul Haque, general secretary of Parishad and vice-chairman of the Nasya Sheikh Development Board, alleged that many legitimate citizens’ names have been placed under adjudication, citing “logical discrepancies” during the SIR process.
“This is unacceptable. The Election Commission should not announce the elections until the names of all legitimate voters are reinstated,” Haque said.
Mohsin Ali, the district secretary of the All Bengal Imam Muezzin Association in Cooch Behar, alleged that a large number of those whose names appear under adjudication are Muslims.
“In some of the areas in Cooch Behar, nearly 90 per cent of Muslim voters have been included in this category. People of one community cannot be deprived of their voting rights in this manner,” he alleged.