Gajol SK’s name was deleted from West Bengal’s voter rolls. Now he is afraid of what comes next.

“Our forefathers have lived in India. If the BJP thinks there are Bangladeshis and Rohingyas here then identify them. They are making poor people stand in the queue. People are going through so much. Isn’t it wrong?” SK, a truck driver and resident of Samserganj, told Newslaundry.

Samserganj is the assembly constituency with the highest deletion rate in Murshidabad – itself the worst-affected district in West Bengal’s Special Intensive Revision exercise. As the state heads to polls on April 23 and 29, Newslaundry visited the booths within Samserganj where deletions have been the heaviest, to understand who has been struck off the rolls, and why.

Why Samserganj’s booths stand out

Across West Bengal, 60,06,675 names were placed “under adjudication” in the SIR list published by the Election Commission on February 28. Of these, 27,16,393 – or 45 percent – have been removed from the rolls. 

Murshidabad, which borders Bangladesh, has six of the state’s seven most-affected constituencies. Topping that list is Samserganj, which also saw the highest number of deletions among the state’s 294 assemblies. The constituency has around 80 percent Muslim voters and was won by the TMC in the last two elections. 

Nearly half of Samserganj’s voters were placed “under adjudication” in the final SIR list published by the Election Commission on February 28. Of the 2,36,040 total voters, 1,08,400 names........

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