By Rahi Halder
A major controversy erupted in West Bengal’s Basirhat North Assembly constituency after 340 voters from a single booth were removed from the electoral roll in the recently published supplementary list.
The affected individuals, all belonging to the Muslim community from Booth no 5 in Boro Gobra village, had previously been marked as “under adjudication” in the draft roll. However, their names were deleted after the first supplementary list was published on Monday.
The situation intensified when it was discovered that even the name of the Booth Level Officer, Md Shafiul Alam, was among those deleted. In response to the mass removal, over a hundred residents staged a protest at the officer’s residence and on local streets, alleging a targeted exclusion based on their community.
Affected residents and local officials have expressed deep frustration over the alleged lack of transparency from electoral authorities. Alam mentioned that his attempts to seek a resolution from the Block Development Officer of Basirhat Block II were met with the response that no further action could be taken, while the Electoral Registration Officer remained unreachable.
One of the affected voters, Kajirul Mondal, pointed out that although the Election Commission requires only one of eleven valid documents, many submitted three or four, yet their names were still purged. The protesters have alleged that the Commission acted under political influence to satisfy specific partisan demands.
This story was originally published in indiatoday.in. Read the full story here.