A daily wage labourer couple from Bengal – Ashwini Adhikari and his wife, Shibani Adhikari – have been declared 'dead' in the first draft of the state's revised voter list – published Tuesday afternoon after the Election Commission-mandated statewide Special Intensive Revision.
But both are still alive. And were paraded in a press conference organised by the state's ruling Trinamool Congress, which has joined other opposition parties in accusing the Bharatiya Janata Party, which is in power at the centre, of colluding with the Election Commission to win polls.
Raising serious questions over this discrepancy, the ruling Trinamool's district chief, Abhijit Bhowmick, said the couple had filled the enumeration form, as required by the government.
"How can they be shown as 'dead' in the draft voter list even after submitting the enumeration forms?” he questioned, accusing the poll panel of 'acting with a motive'. He also accused it of not giving Booth Level Officers, or BLOs, enough time to carry out their work properly.
This lack of time, he claimed, had led to such serious errors.
The list of errors, by the way, included a Trinamool leader – Dankuni Councillor Surya De – being added to the list of 'dead voters' despite being anything but deceased.
The poll panel has issued a show-cause notice to the concerned booth level officer, or BLO.
At the same time, the Commission took note of similar incidents at two other places Cooch Behar and Siliguri, and is also sending notices to BLOs in those two regions too.
And, in another epic error, the CPM's state general secretary and former MP, Mohammed Salim, and his son, Atish Aziz, have been given a Brahmin last name – Awasthi.
In a Facebook post, Aziz said the Election Commission of India has "made me a Brahmin, and Mohammed Salim too," and shared a photograph of his voter information. 'Awasthi' is written in Bengali in the section for 'last name'. Aziz's information mentions his father, Mohammed Salim, as a relative. The 'last name' section next to Salim's name also mentions 'Awasthi'.
"My father has been a politician for decades. If such an error can happen in his case, one can only imagine what might have happened to others," news agency PTI quoted Aziz as saying.
The Election Commission yesterday published the draft voter roll after the Special Intensive Revision exercise in the poll-bound state. A total of 58 lakh names have been deleted, with 24 lakh voters marked as "dead", 19 lakh "permanently shifted", and 12 lakh "missing".
