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Sitalkuchi, Cooch Behar: In the remote Jorpatki village of ​​Sitalkuchi near the India-Bangladesh border, there is no enthusiasm regarding the approaching Assembly election this time around. Instead, a palpable sense of suppressed fear pervades the area. As is customary during elections, the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and other security forces have arrived to ensure security. The Election Commission says their presence is meant to reassure voters and ensure free and fair elections. But in this border pocket of Cooch Behar district, the sight of uniformed personnel evokes not confidence but fear and a painful memory that never quite faded.

As West Bengal prepares for the first phase of its Assembly elections on April 23, that memory still casts a long shadow over Jorapatki. Here, villagers say, the election season no longer brings excitement. Instead, it has revived the trauma of the 2021 Assembly election, when four unarmed residents were killed in firing by central forces outside a polling station.

With central forces deployed in the area again, and route marches expected as part of the poll-security drill, their presence, for many in Jorapatki, is a reminder of a day that turned voting into mourning. At the centre of that memory is Booth No. 5/129 at Amtali Madhyamik Shiksha Kendra, the polling station where during the 2021 Assembly election the forces had opened fire. Around 58% of the electorate here belongs to the Muslim community.

During the recently-conducted Special Intensive Revision (SIR), this booth with 1,037 voters in the draft roll ended up with 1,034 in the final roll, but also with 347 names marked under adjudication – 11 of them of Hindu Dalit voters and the rest Muslims.

Also read: West Bengal SIR: Final Electoral Roll Shows 60 Lakh Voters in Legal Limbo

Among those affected is the family of Moniruzzaman, one of........

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