When Asif Ali received the Election Commission’s summons for a hearing, he felt “insulted”.
The 32-year-old was at Mutty Lall Seal’s Free College in Central Avenue on Saturday — the last day of SIR hearings — to prove he was Indian. Someone had submitted a Form 7 alleging Ali is not a citizen.
“From birth certificate to passport, I have all the documents. I’m not worried about losing my electoral rights. But I feel insulted that I have to prove my Indianness,” Ali told The Telegraph at the hearing centre.
Generations of his family, who are in the business of garments and footwear, have lived in Chitpore and his ancestors are buried “in this land”, Ali said.
Asif Ali
Scores of other voters from Ward 43, too, had received hearing notices relating to Form 7, which allows any voter from the same Assembly constituency to apply to the Election Commission seeking the deletion of a name from the rolls, or objecting to
its inclusion.
Trinamool sources said Form 7s had been submitted mainly against Muslims. The local councillor alleged a “sinister pattern” to target minorities.
“There are 19 Parts in Ward 43. In every part, eight to 10 voters have had a Form 7 filed against them. Each form alleges that a certain person is not an Indian citizen,” councillor Ayesha Kaniz said.
Ward 43, made up of parts of Burrabazar and Kolutola, has a sizeable population of Muslims.
Kaniz found it “strange” that there was a single complainant for each Part. “There’s a clear pattern here,” she said.
A queue at an SIR hearing centre in south Calcutta
On Saturday, this newspaper saw a booth-level officer — for Part 235 of Ward 43 — sorting Form 7s at the Mutty Lall Seal’s Free College hearing centre, opposite Mohammad Ali Park.
“I have 10 Form 7s relating to my Part, all submitted by the same applicant,” the BLO, Md Naimuddin, said.
“The reason for the objections is the same, too — ‘not Indian citizen’. All 10 voters have been called for hearings.”
This newspaper tried calling the two “common complainants” for two Parts. Calls to one produced a long silence followed by a drop; that to the other was followed by a recorded voice saying the number could not be reached.
Apart from “not an Indian citizen”, there are multiple grounds on the basis of which a deletion can be sought, such as death, a permanent shift of residence or multiple enrolments.
A person against whom an objection has been raised is called for a hearing, where they have to submit documents to prove their eligibility for inclusion in the rolls.
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee has accused the BJP of using the Form 7 to try and have the names of genuine voters deleted from the rolls, or prevent them from getting enrolled.
On January 13, a car carrying thousands of filled-in Form 7s was intercepted in Bankura.
Many citizens, several of them elderly voters, complained of harassment even on the last day of the SIR hearings in Bengal.
At the Sahapur Harendranath Vidyapith in New Alipore, 71-year-old Annapurna Paul was waiting for her turn to meet the assistant electoral registration officer.
Her son Gour Paul said: “My father died in 2021 but an enumeration form was issued in his name. My mother is alive but has been declared dead and has not received any form.”
Annapurna Paul
Annapurna had submitted a Form 6, seeking fresh enrolment as a voter, and had been called for a hearing.
“I have brought all my papers,” the determined septuagenarian said. “I have trouble walking, but I have still come because I will not let anyone take away my right to vote.”
Sources said several district magistrates had written to the Bengal chief electoral officer seeking an extension of the deadline for hearings in their Assembly constituencies, suggesting the existence of a backlog.
