As Bengal Votes in Phase One, Its Deleted Migrant Labourers Are in No-Man's Land |
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Murshidabad (Bengal): How many voters in Bengal, whose cases were disposed of by the tribunal, have ultimately regained their voting rights? Only 136.
In the first phase of polling, across 152 constituencies in 16 districts of the state, well over 14 lakh individuals remain on the exclusion list after being kept under adjudication. Voting in these constituencies is scheduled today, April 23.
According to the directives of the Supreme Court, the Election Commission is required to publish a supplementary list two days prior to polling, including those applicants who are deemed eligible voters following tribunal decisions. It did, only 24 hours ahead of the polls.
What lies ahead for the lakhs who are not among the 136? They will, despite being born and raised in this country, remain excluded from the rights of citizenship? In the week leading up to the day of polling, uncertainty and fear gripped entire households.
A return, but for what?
Suiti Khatun, a homemaker from Beliya Shyampur village under Bhagwangola I block in Murshidabad district, waited anxiously for answers as uncertainty loomed over her husband’s voting rights. Her husband, Ibrahim Sheikh, 40, who has been working in Chennai, had boarded a train to return home to be able to vote, when The Wire visited the home.
Ibrahim’s name was recently removed from the voter list after the SIR, leaving the family in distress. Earlier, Ibrahim was listed at serial number 716 in booth number 140 of the Bhagwangola assembly constituency, his family told this reporter.
Authorities had stated that a final decision on whether those whose names were struck off would be allowed to vote would be known on April 21. So on April 21, Suiti visited the Bhagwangola block office twice, standing in line from morning to late afternoon, hoping to find out if her husband’s name had been reinstated.
Suiti Khatun shows her husband’s SIR form. Her husband Ibrahim Sheikh’s name has been deleted from the electoral rolls. Photo: Madhu Sudan Chatterjee.
But as the day wore on, she received no answers. By evening, uncertainty hung heavy. Meanwhile, her husband, on his way home, kept calling repeatedly to ask whether his name had been restored. Suiti had no response to give.
“He is not returning for a job, or for gold or for money. It is just for a single vote that we are going through such turmoil. Will the government take away even this basic right from the poor like us?” Suiti said.
Suiti appeared exasperated by the fact that her husband had to move away from home to earn a living and also that he had to return amidst such mental anguish.
Also read: Bengal SIR: What the Patterns of Exclusion for Muslim, Scheduled Caste and Urban Voters Say
“If there had been food and livelihood here, would he have needed to go so far away? There was no work given to us, and now even the right to vote is being taken away. What kind of government is this? Do they not consider poor people as human beings? Are we not citizens of India?” she asked.
On the morning of April 22, Suiti would discover that Ibrahim’s name is indeed not on the list of eligible voters.
Ibrahim Sheikh’s mother Sulekha Bibi. Photo: Madhu Sudan Chatterjee.
On the eve of the West Bengal Assembly elections, her simple yet profound question echoes in the minds of several lakh people across the state: Are we not citizens of this country?
The situation appears even more alarming in Murshidabad. The district is home to........