SIR, main zinda hoon: Voter marked ‘dead’ queues up for hearing in West Bengal

KOLKATA: "Sir, main abhi zinda hoon (Sir, I am still alive)," insisted 49-year-old Bulbul Jaiswal during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral roll hearing at the Survey Building on Sunday, after being declared ‘dead' in the SIR draft roll.

Bulbul, a Sarat Bose Road resident, is a voter under the Ballygunge assembly constituency. Born and brought up in Howrah, Bulbul moved to her present address after marriage to Rajkumar Jaiswal in 1997. When asked what the problem was for which she was called for a hearing, Bulbul said, "They killed me. They said I am dead. Now, I am here to prove, Sir, I am alive and healthy."




She was called by her BLO on Feb 6 and informed to appear before the ERO on Sunday at the Survey Building, room number 159, for verification. After being declared dead, she filled Form 6 to get herself enrolled as a new voter.

"We were in shock when my husband saw my name on the dead voter list while checking the draft roll on the computer. The entire locality thought I was dead, only to find me very much alive and kicking," Bulbul said. Armed with a passport, Aadhaar, PAN Card, marriage certificate, and every other identity proof she could find, Bulbul stood in the queue waiting for her turn.

Her husband, meanwhile, ran helter-skelter to ensure that he got all the required documents to get his wife's name in the final roll. "All our efforts are now to get her name in the list. My family moved to Bengal in 1942. I have a business here. It is absolute harassment that a living person was declared dead due to their mistake. We spent hours to ensure their mistake is corrected," Rajkumar said, while waving at a passer-by. "We live in the same locality; his wife was also declared dead," he added.

The first electoral draft roll was published in Dec. Around 58 lakh voters were deleted under categories such as death, permanent address shift, or untraceable. Around 1.4 crore voters were flagged under logical discrepancy categories and issued hearing notices.

Even though, officially, the hearing deadline was over on Feb 7, the long queue for fresh inclusion on the third floor of the Survey Building portrayed a different image.

People were mostly called for Form 6 hearings. As per the EC, Form 6 is for fresh inclusion in the electoral roll. Sapan Maity's name was in the 2002 list, but due to a "technical fault", it was deleted. Now he stood in line, irritated to be dragged from home on a weekend.

Scrambling for papers, hard copy acknowledgement slips from BLOs, getting photocopies, and the wait made many impatient, who complained about the system and faulty implementation. "If you were going to conduct SIR in 2025, you should have planned beforehand. This sudden implementation is causing unnecessary trouble," a Ballygunge resident said.

A large section of people in the queue were either from the Ballygunge or Chowringhee constituency. Chowringhee witnessed one of the highest numbers of ASD (absentee, shifted, dead) voter deletions. In Jorasankho, the deleted ASD figure was 72,899 (36.8%), and in Chowringhee, it was 74,510 (35.4%). In Ballygunge, it was 65,165 (25.5%).