'SIR'prising victory: Struck off electoral rolls, Farakka candidate ends Congress's losing drought in West Bengal

NEW DELHI: In the Farakka constituency of West Bengal, an interesting case related to the Special Intensive Revision and the assembly elections took place. A Congress candidate whose name had been struck off the electoral rolls during the SIR, fought the case, won back his voting rights and later conquered the constituency too.Congress candidate Motab Shaikh won the Farakka assembly seat in Murshidabad district, after successfully restoring his eligibility through a Supreme Court-mandated tribunal process. Shaikh defeated BJP’s Sunil Chowdhuri by 8,193 votes, securing 63,050 votes against Chowdhuri’s 54,857, while Trinamool Congress candidate Amirul Islam finished third with 47,256 votes.The victory marks a significant turnaround for the Congress, which also won the Raninagar seat, overcoming the setback of failing to secure a single seat in the 2021 West Bengal Assembly elections.Shaikh’s win is notable given that his name was initially missing from the electoral rolls following the SIR exercise. He challenged the deletion before an appellate tribunal, one of 19 bodies constituted on the Supreme Court’s directions to examine such cases. The tribunal restored his voting rights shortly before the nomination deadline, allowing him to contest the election.In Shaikh’s case, Calcutta high court advocate Firdous Samim appeared in person at Bichar Bhawan and submitted the necessary documents, leading to the restoration of his name in the rolls.Referring to the Supreme Court’s order dated September 8, 2025, former Justice TS Sivagnanam observed that an Aadhar card can be accepted as a supporting document. Though it is not a proof of citizenship, it is “one of the documents enumerated for the purpose of establishing the identity of a person”.Congress also registered a win in the neighbouring Raninagar constituency, where its candidate Julfikar Ali defeated Trinamool’s Soumik Hossain by 2,701 votes, signalling a modest but symbolically important revival for the party in the state.