West Bengal Assembly Elections 2026 | They wait for justice, but ballots to stay out of reach this election

Nadia: Lying on his bed, Mohammed Derach Ali Sheikh keeps asking his wife, Jahanara Bibi, “Have they decided on our appeals?” Jahanara tries to reassure her ailing husband with whatever she has learned from her son: “They have started working and will look into our case when our turn will come.”

Derach Ali worked as a government teacher across West Bengal for several decades before being posted, just before his retirement, at a school in Chandanpur, his ancestral village in the Nakashipara assembly constituency of the state’s Nadia district. “This is where I was born and grew up, just like my ancestors,” he says in his frail voice and adds, “I have voted in all elections since I became eligible to cast votes. But I don’t know what will happen this time.”

The 82-year-old has doubts because the Election Commission has struck his wife and him off the electoral rolls. “We have all the documents. Aadhaar Cards, Voter ID cards, land records, the recruitment letter my husband received, and the pension order, which has my name mentioned on it,” Jahanara Bibi, says, adding: “But we were still deleted for minor mismatches in the spelling of the names”. An appeal has been filed, and a tribunal will now decide the fate of the couple. What Derach Ali or Jahanara Bibi, however, do not know yet is that they are unlikely to get a chance to vote in the assembly elections this year. Not only them, but almost none of the people, who have been disenfranchised after the Special Intensive Revision of the electoral rolls in West Bengal, would be able to take part in the festival of democracy in the state, even if the appellate tribunals restore their right to vote.

The electoral rolls for all the 294 assembly constituencies going to polls on April 23 and 29 were frozen as the deadlines for filing nominations expired on April 6 and 9, respectively.

The 19 tribunals set up to hear the appeals filed against the deletion of voters started working at a building of the Union Ministry of Jal Shakti in Joka, on the outskirts of Kolkata, on Monday. The appellate tribunals were set up in accordance with the order of the Supreme Court. The Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court, Sujoy Paul, constituted a committee to decide the procedure the tribunals will follow while deciding on the appeals. The appeals are being filed online as well as offline at the district and subdivisional headquarters.

“I heard that the tribunals started working today,” Derach Ali’s brother, Firoz Ali Sheikh, 73, says. Firoz is also a retired schoolteacher. He and his wife, Surjima Bibi, also voted in many elections last year, but were also struck off the list, due to mismatches in the spelling of their names, just like Derach Ali and Jahanara. “This village is where my forefathers were born. This is where I was born. If the tribunal does not give us justice and our voting rights are not restored, where would they throw us out?” says Firoz.

Like Derach, Jahanara, Firoz and Surjima, over 840 of nearly 4000 voters in Chandanpur lost voting rights since the SIR of the electoral rolls commenced in West Bengal.

S M Mosharraf Hossain, a teacher at a local school, was appointed by the Election Commission as the Booth Level Officer to conduct the roll revision in the village. He, himself, has now been stripped of his voting rights. So has been his father, German Sheikh, although their ancestors were on the 1952 electoral rolls. “I don’t have the right to vote, but I have now been appointed as a polling officer to conduct voting in a booth on April 29.”

Rajab Ali Sheikh’s disabled son and daughter, Sadeq Ali Sheikh and Rajiba Khatun, have voted since 2002. They have disability certificates issued by the West Bengal government as well as other documents, but they, too, have been disenfranchised. “We are now looking forward to the decision of the tribunal on the appeals of my son and daughter,” says Rajab Ali.  

Around 63.66 lakh voters, around 8.3% of the electorate, had been deleted from the rolls across West Bengal till February 28. However, over 60.06 lakh more voters had been placed in the “under adjudication” category, and their eligibility to remain on the electoral rolls was subjected to scrutiny by judicial officers. The EC data showed that over 27.16 lakh voters of the 60.06 lakhs placed in the “under adjudication” category had been struck off the rolls, while more than 32.68 lakh of them had been included in the electoral rolls.