Kolkata/Malda/Murshidabad: Nearly 40% of people placed under adjudication in the SIR list published by the Election Commission are from three districts — North 24 Parganas, Malda and Murshidabad. While Malda and Murshidabad are minority-dominated districts, North 24 Parganas makes the Matua heartland. While 19 lakh voters have been placed under adjudication in Murshidabad and Malda, around 6 lakh are under scrutiny in North 24 Parganas.As many as 60,000 names have been deleted in Nadia and over 40,000 in the five assembly segments of Bongaon subdivision, sparking a sense of panic among voters of the Matua-dominated region. In Bongaon subdivision, there were 15,303 deletions in Bagda, 7,926 in Bongaon North, 6,902 in Bongaon South, 6,770 in Gaighata, and 2,924 in Swarupnagar.Reacting to this, TMC Rajya Sabha MP Mamata Bala Thakur and Bagda MLA Madhuporna Thakur accused Union minister Shantanu Thakur and BJP of “false assurances”. Madhuporna remarked, “It is unfortunate that those who voted until 2024 were erased from the list in 2026.”In Malda, while 18,000 voters were deleted from the draft list, over 8 lakh names are now under judicial review. A greater number — over 11 lakh — is under scrutiny in Murshidabad. The district has around 55 lakh voters, which means more than 20% of the electorate is being adjudicated. The Malda assembly seats of Sujapur and Malatipur, where minorities make more than 80% of the population, reported around 1 lakh and 80,000 adjudicated names, respectively. In Murshidabad, Shamsherganj (1.2 lakh), Suti (1.1 lakh), and Raghunathganj (1.1 lakh) led the adjudication list, while Behrampore recorded the lowest at 12,754.Ansar Sheikh, a 62-year-old hawker in Behrampore, has voted for four decades. Yet, he found himself under adjudication due to a spelling mistake. Malda resident Samiul Islam said his mother was in tears after being excluded despite attending two hearings and submitting all required documents.Itahar MLA Mosharaf Hossain claimed, “90% of those under judicial consideration belong to the Muslim community. BJP is using the ECI to exclude voters.”Minister Firhad Hakim, who was in Murshidabad on Saturday, criticised the Election Commission, saying: “Sick, aged people, and even pregnant women were compelled to attend SIR hearings. Despite furnishing documents, the names of those from one particular community remain suspicious in the eyes of the EC.”However, BJP refuted the claims. The party’s Malda district president Ajoy Ganguly stated there was nothing “unnatural” about the adjudications, suggesting previous names were included at the behest of the party in office.Speaking on the deletions in the Matua belt, BJP MLA Subrata Thakur maintained that exclusions followed EC protocols, noting that those who arrived recently from Bangladesh might face documentation issues. He added that citizenship applications under the CAA would soon be processed within days via fast-track committees.Nizamuddin Biswas, general Secretary of the All Bengal Imam Muazzim Association, said, “We were doubtful of the EC’s neutrality from the start. However, we have faith in the judiciary’s supervision and believe no genuine citizen’s name will be deleted.”
