‘96% turnout’: Bengal Assembly seat with highest SIR deletions records unprecedented voting

All four Assembly constituencies with the highest deletions during the adjudication phase are in Murshidabad, where the turnout figure was 93.55% as of 11.30 pm, according to the ECINET app. These four constituencies are Samserganj with 74,775 deletions and 96.04% polling, Lalgola with 55,420 deletions and 96.45% polling, Bhagawangola with 47,493 deletions and 96.95% turnout, and Raghunathganj with 46,100 deletions and 96.9% polling. All figures are from the ECINET app as of 11.30 pm.

At the Raghunathpur primary school in the Domkal Assembly seat, about 10 km from Raninagar, voter Sabir Ahmed said 12 people in the area had their names struck off the rolls. “Everyone is scared that if they don’t vote, their names may be removed from the electoral roll. That’s why we are all here.”

By 1.50 pm, there was a long queue outside the Tarini Sundari Vidyapith in the Rejinagar Assembly constituency, around 60 km away. Here, voter Tuhina Bibi expressed a similar sentiment about the concern that SIR had generated. ”Since SIR, there has been panic in the area,” she claimed. “Village after village, people have gone to vote. Some of my family members’ names have been deleted and are now before the tribunals.”

Polling in Murshidabad district was peaceful, with sporadic incidents of violence. In the afternoon, the convoy of former Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader and Aam Janata Unnayan Party (AJUP) founder Humayun Kabir was blocked by workers of the ruling party in the Naoda Assembly constituency area. After an initial scuffle between the two sides, a group of locals pelted stones at Kabir’s convoy while it was leaving the area and attacked it with lathis. A car belonging to the AJUP leader’s election agent was ransacked.

“In some booths, our agents were not allowed to enter,” the AJUP leader later told reporters. “When I visited the spot, they tried to attack me. All this was done with the help of the local police. They ransacked one of our vehicles. I will ensure the end of Trinamool.”

In the afternoon, around 200 people in Digri village of Samserganj held a silent protest against the deletion of their names from the rolls.

At 4 pm, The Indian Express saw long queues outside the Bholadanga Adivasi primary school in Nabagram constituency, around 15 km from Baharampur town. Swapna Dolui, one of the voters waiting for her turn, said, “There has not been much deletion here. But after SIR, everyone is concerned. So even at 4 pm, you see this queue. It is also a fact that the afternoon heat was too much, and so people like me decided to vote in the evening.”

Another voter, Injamam Sheikh, said, “My name and that of five family members are all on the list. We appear to have been lucky. But voting is a must. We don’t want to land in trouble.”