Bengal polls: From Gaighata to Jalpaiguri, voter deletions spark statewide protests

KOLKATA: Protests over mass deletion of voters following judicial adjudication erupted across the state on Thursday, from Gaighata to Jalpaiguri.

Tension flared outside the Gaighata block development office in North 24-Parganas after large-scale exclusions from the final electoral rolls triggered demonstrations. Aggrieved voters blocked Jessore Road in the morning, alleging arbitrary removal of names.

In Part No. 173 of Chandpara, within the Matua-dominated Gaighata Assembly constituency, 183 out of 186 "under adjudication" voters were excluded from the supplementary voter list. Residents staged a blockade and later submitted a memorandum to the BDO, demanding restoration of their names.

When CPM candidate from Bongaon South, Ashish Sarkar, tried to address the gathering, protesters asked him to leave, urging that the issue not be politicised. Police from Gaighata station intervened and the blockade was lifted after about 30 minutes following assurances.

The controversy deepened after the publication of the second supplementary voter list late on Friday. "The list revealed that only three out of 186 voters in the 173rd booth of Chandpara were deemed valid, leaving 183 names deleted," said Ananda Biswas, a protester. The development has fuelled anger among the Matua community, with many residents saying they were unaware of the process to appeal before the Election Commission's (EC) tribunals.

Debaprasad Bala, a resident of Dhakuria under the same booth, said, "My family has been voting for generations, yet our names have been removed. Almost everyone in our locality faces the same issue. We trusted the assurances given by Union minister Shantanu Thakur, but now we feel betrayed."

Lakshmirani Singh Laskar, an elderly resident, said, "I have been a voting citizen for years. I submitted documents from 1965, including my father's papers and land records. Still, my name has been struck off. Why?"

In Jalpaiguri, residents blocked a national highway at Husulurdanga on the Dhupguri–Maynaguri stretch around noon, protesting deletion of names during the SIR process despite earlier inclusion under adjudication. The blockade caused heavy congestion near a toll gate. The situation eased after sadar sub-divisional officer Moin Ahmed intervened, with the blockade lifted after nearly two hours.

In Malda, protests continued despite the previous day's unrest in Mothabari. National Highway 12 was blocked at Narayanpur by voters from Jalanga, Mangalbari and Jatradanga gram panchayats, disrupting traffic from 8 am. Protesters alleged that the EC had deliberately deleted names in minority-dominated areas, citing booth no. 153 in Mangalbari where 253 voters were removed. The blockade was lifted after two hours.

Within an hour, another blockade began at Jadupur in English Bazar, where villagers used burning tyres and bamboo barricades under the slogan "First Voter, Then Vote". Police later resorted to lathi-charge to disperse the crowd.

(With inputs from Subhro Maitra in Malda and Pinak Priya Bhattacharya in Jalpaiguri)