West Bengal poll: ‘Temple Man’ may boycott vote as kin names missing from list

MIDNAPORE: Septuagenarian Yeasin Pathan, who received the Kabir Award from the President of India in 1994 for preserving ancient Hindu temples and promoting communal harmony, announced on social media that he might boycott the vote because the names of his son and two daughters are under adjudication.

His three children—Tasbir Pathan Badsha, Tania Parveen, and Tamanna Parveen — were sent for adjudication when the list was published on Feb 28.




Taking to his social media handle, he wrote: “The mischievous Election Commission kept my children’s names as ‘pending’ on the voter list. I will not vote; I am boycotting the election.” Expressing his anger, Yeasin questioned why their names were still pending despite his and his wife’s names being on the list.

Speaking to TOI , he said, “It is very unfortunate that even after submitting all the documents, their names were not included. My son is a contractual staffer in the DM office. If their names are not included on the supplementary list, then our entire family, including my wife, sons-in-law, and me, will boycott the vote.”

In his post, the septuagenarian stated that his children’s names were on the draft voter list and that they also appeared for a hearing, where they presented their birth certificates, school certificates, and the 2002 SIR roll in which their parents’ names were listed. However, despite all these efforts, they were excluded from the final voter list.

Yeasin worked tirelessly throughout his life to preserve, renovate, and restore 42 ancient Hindu temples in and around his village, Pathra Mouja. He faced extreme resistance from his own community, but nothing deterred him from his mission.