‘Underage’ girl won Malda polls

MALDA: The allegation of fighting an election even before the age of 21 has rocked Malda.
The alleged candidate has already fought the election for the ruling party and has won it. But a “false affidavit” regarding her age has already been exposed. No wonder, the district administration remained silent.
Ward 8 of Old Malda Municipality was reserved for women.Councillor Shyam Mandal who had recently switched his allegiance from RSP to TMC, could not fight the election. Instead the party had nominated his wife Anusua Das as the candidate. As per her declaration to State Election Commission, she was born on December 18, 1993. But, much before the election was even conducted, RSP leadership on March 25 lodged a complaint with the SDO regarding the age of Das.
District RSP secretary Goutam Gupta said, “As per her declaration, she had passed the HS examination. The record of the school from which she had passed showed her date of birth was May 10, 1997, which means she was much less than the minimum age of 21 years which is required to be candidate.”
“She did not even cross 18 to be enrolled as voter,” Gupta said.
When SEC asked about it, the SDO replied that Das had submitted her voters’ identity card as well as a birth certificate issued by Old Malda Municipality supporting her year of birth to be 1993.
“She was not even born in the juridiction of Old Malda Municipality and was still issued a birth certificate. And that was also issued at a time when all regular works of the municipality were stopped for election,” said Gupta.
Following the complaint, hasty steps were allegedly taken to “raise” her age.
As per her declaration to SEC, Das had passed Class-VIII from Mahadipur Girls’ School. An RTI from Gupta made the school authority declare that Das was born in 1997 as per the school records. That document was also submitted to SEC. “Enlisting her name in the voters’ list is illegal as she had not crossed 18,” claimed Gupta.
“Following our RTI enquiry, we were shown the EPIC of her mother Iti Roy (Das) which showed her age to be only 33. Now if her daughter is 21, is it believable that she became a mother when she was 12-years-old?” A complaint has already been lodged.
Trinamool leader and Das’ husband Shyam Mandal said, “We had submitted the required age proof to SEC prior to the election.” SDO Nandini Saraswati said, “I have not seen the complaint yet.”