Run-up to West Bengal assembly polls: Enclave dwellers yet to be given voting rights

If included in the voters’ list, these potential voters settled in districts of Jalpaiguri and Cooch Behar will alter the composition of nearly six Assembly segments in the region.

In the enclaves, many would-be voters urged the administration to speed up the process. (Express Archive)

With Assembly polls in West Bengal only a few months away, it is still unclear whether nearly 12,000 enclave dwellers, who officially became “Indian citizens” in July last year, would be able to cast their vote or not. A senior secretary of the Election Commission said that the commission last week held several rounds of talks with home and law ministry officials to sort out the matter. The meetings followed EC letters to the ministries raising the issue.

If included in the voters’ list, these potential voters settled in districts of Jalpaiguri and Cooch Behar will alter the composition of nearly six Assembly segments in the region. According to the Census survey done on the enclaves prior to the land-swap between Indian and Bangladesh, about 12,000 out of a total population 16,000 people, who officially became Indian citizens, are eligible to become voters. While Aadhaar cards for the entire population have been made, their names are yet to added to the voters’ list.

The EC has pointed out to the concerned ministries that the matter is not solely about including new voters in the list as the exercise involves inclusion of new geographical territory to several existing Assembly constituencies falling within Cooch Behar and Jalpaiguri districts. While the delimitation act empowers EC to reconstitute existing constituencies, the situation in this case is different as new land boundary is being added.

Read: Centre set to introduce Bill to give voting rights to those in enclaves

“We have written to the government to provide the legal framework for addition of new areas to existing Assembly constituencies. Chances are that the issue would be taken up in the upcoming Budget Session of Parliament…We need this enabling legal provision. It is not a big job, but it still needs to be passed by Parliament,” said a senior EC official, who had participated in the talks.

In the enclaves, many would-be voters urged the administration to speed up the process.

“I am 25 now, and I have waited seven years for casting my vote. Our names have come in the Aadhaar list. Now, we are waiting for the voters’ list. Our identity as Indian citizen will be complete only after we are able to cast our votes,” said Saddam, a second-year postgraduate student from Moshaldanga enclave that is part of India.

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Even 77-year-old Mansur Ali Mian of Poaturkuthi is eager to vote, saying this might be his last opportunity.

“In my life of 77 years, I have not voted even once. We have now got freedom. My father passed away without ever voting. I am nearing the end of my life. If I miss this opportunity, I do not know if I will ever have this precious right,” he said.

Meanwhile, district officials said the Assembly constituencies where enclave dwellers will have to be enumerated included Dinhata, Mekhliganj, Mathabhanga, Sitalkuchi, and a couple of others. Dinhata, according to them, is the constituency where the maximum enclave dwellers — nearly 8,000 — will have to absorbed.

Cooch Behar’s district magistrate, P Ulaganathan, said: “We have done whatever needed to be done. We are ready with all information and data. All ground work has been done to see that the migrated population gets the opportunity to vote. It is the Election Commission that has to take the final call.”

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