Kolkata: As the sun beat down, Munsi Rezaul Karim boarded a Khanakul-bound bus on Tuesday, armed with an appointment letter from the Election Commission (EC) assigning him to Booth 140A at Basantapur Prathamik Vidyalaya as the third polling officer. What would have been a routine civic duty turned out to be a strange one this year. The EC may have entrusted him with an electoral job, but it has stripped him of his voting right. Karim is one among scores of government employees caught in the SIR (Special Identity Review) dragnet. Karim's name was placed as 'under adjudication' on the roll and later struck off despite an appeal in the tribunal. He said, "It is a hollow feeling to be assigned by the same commission that robbed me of my rights."
Stories of Disenfranchised Poll Workers
The stories of disenfranchised poll workers echo across south Bengal districts, revealing a gap between administrative rigour and ground reality. Arpita Mukherjee, a library and information assistant at the National Library, finds herself in a similar bureaucratic limbo. Despite her name being deleted, she is assigned as the first polling officer near Mukundapur in the Jadavpur constituency. "The irony is I will conduct the election and work on counting day but won't be allowed to vote," she said. Mukherjee was in Gujarat when her SIR hearing notice arrived, and she sent her brother with her birth certificate, passport, and central government employment papers. "They rejected the papers as I could not be there in person," she said. This, despite the EC allowing family members to attend SIR hearings for voters out of station or caught in important work. Mukherjee's subsequent attempts at re-enrolling by submitting Form 6 were rejected, and the tribunal portal labelled her EPIC "invalid."
Absurdity for Long-Time Voters
For Sk Zakir Hossain, who has voted at least five times, the situation borders on being absurd. Deployed as the first polling officer in Raina, Burdwan East, Hossain is the only one from his five-member family whose name is deleted. While the EC flagged a spelling error in his father's name, his father and two brothers, whose documents also had the same clerical error, were cleared and restored to the list. "I have been on polling duty for 13 years," Hossain said. "The returning officer even asked me why I hadn't cast a postal ballot. I told him, 'you haven't given me the right to.'"
Watching from the Sidelines
There are some who are watching from the sidelines. Deleted voter Munsi Sadekul Karim was deployed as a presiding officer in Bhatpara, but a spinal injury has left him bedridden. "This is the first time in years that I could neither vote nor conduct the poll," he said. Disenfranchised enforcers stand as a testament to the SIR complexities. They will ensure citizens' voices are heard, but their own will remain silenced by the system they serve.
