Many people who struggle to make ends meet are now desperately seeking legal help after their names were removed from the electoral rolls.

The exclusion of these daily wage earners has created deep uncertainty, leaving many unsure of what steps to take next.

Several of them alleged that BLOs were unable to guide them, saying they had no information on how or where to file appeals, or what to do if tribunals failed to respond. This lack of clarity has increased anxiety among those fearing the consequences of exclusion from the voter list.

Amid the confusion, many believe that approaching lawyers is their only option.

Among them are a rickshaw puller from Rajarhat and a worker at a leather tannery in Topsia, both of whom are trying to navigate the process.

“The election dates are very close. If there is no resolution, what will we do?” said Rabin Pal, 53, the rickshaw puller, on Wednesday.

Both Rabin and his wife, Chinta, found their names placed under adjudication
and subsequently deleted in a supplementary list. On Tuesday evening, Rabin approached a lawyer along with another man, a private security guard at a residential building in Dum Dum. The man and his wife also found their names deleted from the voter rolls.

Rabin said he had appeared for an SIR hearing earlier. “There was a hearing, and we had submitted all our documents. But even then, our names were kept under adjudication in the (post-SIR) February 28 list. The BLO had asked me to be patient,” Rabin said.

That patience is now wearing thin.

“The election date (April 29) is approaching... I can’t read or write, so how can I file an appeal?” he said. “Someone in our locality advised us to seek help from a lawyer who could at least draft the appeal properly.”

Rabin and his wife have handed over their documents to the lawyer, who has promised to advise them on the next course of action.

On Monday, the Supreme Court declined to entertain the Bengal government’s plea to direct the 19 appellate tribunals to issue interim orders allowing at least certain categories of excluded voters to vote, saying “we do not want to rush it”.

The deadline for the inclusion of deleted voters in the electoral rolls of the 152 first-phase constituencies expired on Monday, while the deadline for the inclusion of those in the 142 second-phase constituencies ends on Thursday, April 9. The next hearing in the Supreme Court is scheduled for April 13.

Affected voters can appeal before tribunals set up by Calcutta High Court, but so far, the tribunals have not heard a single appeal from ordinary voters. They have only heard and cleared two cases involving election candidates.

With the voter list for the second phase of polling set to be frozen on Thursday, few expect their names to be restored.

In Topsia, Md Wasim Malick, a worker at a tannery in the Calcutta Leather Complex, faces similar trouble. Neither his name nor his wife’s appears on the voter rolls.

Wasim’s name had been mistakenly recorded as Md Ashim in the 2002 voter rolls, while his wife, Shabana Malick, was listed as Shabana Begum. The errors were corrected in 2016. “But now both our names have been deleted. I called the BLO, but he said he could not help. I asked why our names were removed despite submitting all the required documents,” Wasim said.

“When I asked how to appeal to the tribunal, he said he had no information. So I am now seeking help from a lawyer,” he said.