Aftab Alam gave his primary school examination at Krishnanath School in Titagarh in 1976. He is 64 now. Today, he was back at the same school. It was not for any reunion, but to prove he has the right to vote.

He had been waiting for over two hours when this reporter met him, a sheaf of documents under his arm, standing in a queue that snaked through a compound still waterlogged from the previous night’s rain.

Aftab Alam is holding his primary school exam certificate. (Image courtesy Suhasini Biswas)

He was one of nearly 500 residents who descended on the school – acting as tribunal centres – that morning from localities across North 24 Parganas – Patulia, Suryapur, Rahara, Mohanpur, Bandipur: each carrying some version of the same problem. Their names had either been deleted or placed under adjudication following West Bengal’s Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls. At the end of their wait, most received a stamped acknowledgement.

People standing in queues in a waterlogged area waiting for their turn. (Image courtesy Suhasini Biswas)

North 24 Parganas is among the hardest-hit districts in the state. The district lost 12.6 lakh voters from its rolls, South 24 Parganas 10.9 lakh, Murshidabad 7.5 lakh. All three border Bangladesh. Malda and East Burdwan were also among the heavily affected. Murshidabad and Malda are Muslim-majority districts; North 24 Parganas has a substantial Matua population. The pattern has sharpened the political argument over whether the revision was applied evenly.

A father who came for his daughter

Mohammed Hadis, a resident of Suryapur in Rahara, had wrapped his right foot in a black polythene bag before leaving home. “I have a diabetic leg so three of my fingers have been cut off so I wrapped this plastic bag to prevent any infection,” he said, nodding........

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