A booth-level officer (BLO) and a voter marked “under adjudication” on the electoral roll died in two Assembly constituencies of Malda district in the past
24 hours.

Family members of the deceased alleged that excessive workload had led to the death of BLO Abul Barkat, 60, and anxiety over the possible deletion of the name from the voter list contributed to the demise of Abdus Sattar, 64.

Barkat, who recently retired as a teacher of a state government-aided high madrasa, was the BLO of booth 153 in the Sujapur Assembly constituency. He died at Malda Medical College and Hospital (MMCH), where he had been admitted after complaining of acute chest pain early on Friday morning.

Hasib Akhtar, his son, claimed that Barkat had been under immense pressure since the start of the SIR process.

“After the revised voter list was published on February 28, around 579 out of nearly 1,400 voters of his booth were marked ‘under adjudication’. Many of them frequently visited our house, asking why their names had not been confirmed in the electoral roll. Some even questioned his responsibility. Because of this pressure, my father would continue working late into the night. Last night, he suddenly fell ill and passed away this morning,” Akhtar said.

He alleged that frequent new instructions from the Election Commission had added to the stress. “It was not easy to comply with the changing directions. My father could not cope with such pressure,” the son added.

Sattar of Sonapur village in the Mashalda panchayat of the Harishchandrapur Assembly seat died after suffering a cardiac arrest on Thursday. Sattar’s name had been marked “under adjudication” on the electoral roll.

His son, Tarikul Alam, said Sattar had been worried after learning that his voting eligibility had not yet been
confirmed.

“Seven members of our family, except my mother, were marked under adjudication. This created fear in him. On Thursday afternoon, he suffered a cardiac attack. When we took him to a local health centre, the doctors referred him to the Chanchal super-speciality hospital. But he died on the way,” Alam said.

The deaths made Trinamool Congress leaders react.

“Such deaths are being reported in Malda because of the special intensive revision (SIR) of the electoral roll, but the Election Commission remains indifferent. The people will give a befitting reply in the elections,” said Subhamay Bose, a Trinamool spokesperson in Malda.

Neelanjan Das, a district general secretary of the BJP’s Malda south (organisational) unit, rejected the charge.

“The state government and Trinamool opposed the SIR from the very beginning and spread panic among people. The deaths are unfortunate, and people know who is actually responsible,”
Das said.