West Bengal Assembly Elections 2026 | Murshidabad’s 'Chhote Nawab' shut out of 'Festival of Democracy'

Mirza is the 15th-generation descendant of Mir Jafar, who had betrayed Siraj-ud-Daulah, the last independent Nawab of Bengal, and colluded with Robert Clive to ensure the victory of the East India Company in the Battle of Plassey.

Murshidabad: Syed Muhammad Reza Ali Mirza had never missed voting. He had always reached the polling station early in the morning and had often found himself among the first few to cast votes.

Not this time, though. Mirza, 82, did not turn up at the polling station at Kutubpur Naba Adarsha High School in Murshidabad on Thursday, when 152 of the 294 constituencies of West Bengal went to the polls in the first phase of voting for the assembly elections in the state. His son, Syed Muhammad Fahim Ali Mirza, also stayed away from the polling station all day. So did nearly 200 of his relatives.

They all have been stripped of voting rights, thanks to the Special Intensive Revision of the electoral rolls, which the Election Commission carried out just ahead of the assembly polls in West Bengal.

“I once thought I would go to the polling station to check once again if they put me back on the roll,” Mirza says. “But I later dropped the plan. I would have known had they restored my right to vote.”

Mirza is the 15th-generation descendant of Mir Jafar, who had betrayed Siraj-ud-Daulah, the last independent Nawab of Bengal, and colluded with Robert Clive to ensure the victory of the East India Company in the 1757 Battle of Plassey. He now lives with his family near Kila Nizamat, a historic fort-campus on the banks of the Bhagirathi River in Murshidabad, the historic town which had once been the seat of the Nawabs of Bengal, Bihar, and Orissa.

The East India Company had installed Mir Jafar as the Nawab of Bengal after the fall and death of Siraj Ud Daula. He had reigned from 1757 to 1760.

His treachery against Siraj ud Daula may have etched Mir Jafar’s name in the pages of history, but it also tied his descendants indelibly to the history of Murshidabad.

That’s why losing voting rights hurt Mirza.

“I have been regularly casting my votes for decades. My name was on the 2002 roll, too,” Mirza, fondly called Chhote Nawab in Murshidabad, says, holding up the Electoral Photo Identity Card and the Aadhaar Card issued to him. The 2002 electoral roll was the baseline set by the EC to conduct the SIR. “They called me for a hearing. I went and submitted all my documents. But they still placed me in the ‘under adjudication’ category and then deleted my name,” he says, adding: “They also deleted the names of my son, other members of my family, as well as a large number of my relatives.”

The ‘Syed’ was missing in Chhote Nawab’s name in the 2002 roll, but the honorific figured in the subsequent lists. Though he submitted the necessary documents to explain the mismatch, his name was struck off the list.

Mirza said that the Hazarduari Palace, along with other historic monuments in Murshidabad, had been built by his ancestors. Yet, he added, the citizenship status of not just his family but many descendants of the Nawabs of Bengal had now been called into question after their names were struck off the list. His only worry now is whether his family would be allowed to bury him alongside his ancestors in Murshidabad, or if circumstances would force them to relocate elsewhere.