Controversy sweeps over West Bengal’s Basirhat North Assembly constituency as 340 voters, all Muslims, belonging to a single booth were removed from the electoral roll in the supplementary list.
These people, all belonging to the Muslim community, had previously been labeled as “under adjudication” in the draft roll, and eventually their names were deleted on the first supplementary list.
Alleging disproportionate impact on Muslim voters, protesters raised questions over possible bias in the deletions. Many residents said the process was opaque and appeared to be driven by political considerations.
Anger has mounted amid the lack of clarity from authorities, with protesters calling for reinstatement of names and a transparent reassessment.
The situation snowballed as it was learned that the Booth Level Officer (BLO), Md. Shafiul Alam, was among those whose names have been deleted, leading to protests, alleging that it is a move taken based on their community.
Alam said his attempts to seek redress from the Block Development Officer of Basirhat Block II yielded no result, with officials stating that no further action could be taken while the Electoral Registration Officer remained unreachable.
The dispute arises from Booth No. 5 under Begumpur Bibipur Gram Panchayat in Basirhat Block 2. The booth had 992 registered cases, and 38 were removed due to death or relocation. 358 voters were called for hearings over eligibility concerns. Out of these, 18 cases were resolved, and another 340, all Muslims, were placed under adjudication and then eventually deleted.
Meanwhile, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said that the BJP and Election Commission are undermining democracy through the SIP and said that the next step could be to remove people through the NRC.
“The EC, BJP, and the center are not following the Constitution. They are trying to snatch voting rights,” she said.
“We got Independence at midnight, and we feel proud of it. But today, they have forgotten independence. They are not following the Constitution or democracy. They are snatching away people’s voting rights,” she said.
