'Md Salim Awasthi': CPM Leader, A Muslim, Becomes Brahmin In SIR Draft Roll

In an epic error during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter lists in West Bengal, CPM's state general secretary and former MP, Mohammed Salim, and his son, Atish Aziz, have been given a Brahmin last name -- Awasthi -- in the draft voter roll published yesterday.

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.

Salim used the opportunity to launch an attack on the Election Commission. "The error shows that a serious exercise like the SIR has been taken very lightly by the Election Commission. It did not take adequate preparations and did not impact the necessary training of officials undertaking the job," he told The Telegraph newspaper, adding that the Chief Electoral Officer and the Chief Election Commissioner have turned SIR into a "farcical officer".

Atish has said he will get in touch with the CPM's Booth Level Agent to get the corrections made. Sources at the office of Bengal's Chief Electoral Officer downplayed the error and said mistakes such as these will be corrected before the final list is published in February.

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".