Kolkata: Days before the rest of Kolkata goes to polls in two rounds, more and more residents are being greeted with the news that they can't vote as their names are not on the electoral roll.
A day after TOI reported on filmmaker Shiba Prasad Mukhopadhyay's plight over his name missing from voters' list, former mayor Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya on Saturday expressed apprehension that even he might not be able to vote on April 30. Merely a week left for south Kolkata to go to polls, Bhattacharya, who lives in the Jadavpur assembly constituency, has not yet received his voter's slip.
"I am yet to receive a voter's slip. Going by the trend, I fear that my name has been deleted from the electoral roll on purpose," Bhattacharya said on Saturday. The former mayor, who is also an activist of the Save Democracy forum alleged the ruling party was deliberately deleting names to avoid a "poll disaster". "I have information that in many wards under the Jadavpur constituency, the Election Commission representatives, who are responsible for distributing voters' slips, were told to skip certain households just because of the anti-incumbency factor," he alleged.
Another resident of the Jadavpur constituency, septuagenarian Banibrata Bose who lives in Chittaranjan Colony, also cannot vote this time. "Only a couple of days ago, I was told my name was deleted from the electoral roll. I'm shocked that I won't be able to exercise my democratic right," Bose said.
He approached local CPM councillor Rinku Naskar for a solution, but she pointed out that it was beyond her capacity to include Bose's name now for him to vote on April 30. "I am helpless. Bose is not alone. There are hundreds whose names have been deleted in Jadavpur constituency," Naskar said.
Even Mrintunjoy Chakraborty, a CPM councillor representing areas such as Netajinagar and Bijoygarh, alleged scores of voters in his localities were also left out. Bijoy Nag, a senior citizen from Netajinagar, approached both Chakraborty as well as Trinamool leaders with a similar complaint. "But I could do nothing to include his name now. It is a planned endeavor by some ruling party leaders," Chakraborty claimed.