Mamata Banerjee electoral roll camps: At the crossing of Golabari Bazar in Haroa in North 24 Parganas district, a huge blue and white makeshift camp cannot be missed.
Decorated with frills hanging from the ceiling, three tables are laid out inside the camp with a huge banner of TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee and her nephew and No.2 in the party, Abhishek Banerjee, forming the backdrop. Rows of chairs are neatly placed, and nearly two dozen people, clutching their documents in small plastic bags, wait for their turn to be called at the table, where two men are seated with a laptop and a mobile phone.
This is one of the thousands of SIR Sahayat Kendra (SIR Help Centres) set up by the ruling Trinamool Congress across West Bengal since the rollout of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the state on November 4.
“We are solving all SIR-related problems here. We are guiding people on what to do if they have any document-related problems. We are doing our best to help them. If needed, we are referring them to others,” said Mohd Alamgir, the local Booth Level Assistant (BLA) of the TMC, pointing to the slogan ‘Banglar Vote Rakkharte’ (To save Bengal’s vote) written on the huge banner inside the camp.
Standing in front of him is 60-year-old Doldar Bibi (60), a resident of Golabari. Her concern: “The spelling of her name in the 2002 SIR list and the one in her voter card is different”.
“You need not worry. Just put the name as it is in the 2002 SIR list on the form given to you by the BLO. Even if the spelling is wrong, let it be. It can be corrected later, but your name first should come on the electoral roll after SIR,” Alamgir tells her.
Asad Ali (58) also shared the same problem with Alamgir.
Forty-year-old Sofiya Bibi was there at the camp to find her name on the 2002 voter list.
“In the last three days, over 300 people have visited this camp, and we helped them. If someone’s name is in the 2002 SIR list or any other year’s voter list, we are handing them printouts for free. The majority of people are coming with the problem of their names being wrongly spelled either in the electoral roll or their voter ID,” said Alamgir.
The camp has started training TMC workers so that they can assist in filling out the enumeration forms correctly. “We have demo forms that we are using to train our workers. They will help people fill out the forms correctly,” Alamgir added.
For Alamgir, the complex issue that has so far come to the fore is of one EPIC number allotted to a couple.
“Muzammel Haq and his wife Khadija Bibi had two EPIC numbers in 2002. But in 2005, both were listed in the electoral roll with the same EPIC number. This is tough for us to crack,” he said.
“If we encounter a problem that we cannot solve, I will approach (TMC) block supervisors, who may reach out to district supervisors. Then, there are our MLAs and block presidents. We have a chain system here for resolving the problems,” Alamgir, who is a supervisor at the panchayat level of the party.
The day when SIR was rolled out in poll-bound West Bengal, along with eight other states, TMC supremo led a huge padyatra in Kolkata against the Election Commission’s exercise and urged people to seek help from help centres set up by the party. “If you do not have the papers, go to the ward offices, municipality offices, or the gram panchayats. If you cannot go anywhere, come to our camps. I want to help you all, and all of your names must be there. I’m not sure who you will vote for, but I can help you. We will fight on the streets and in the courts too,” she had said, adding, “proyojone thalabati beche sahajyo korbo (If necessary, we will sell our utensils to help you all.”
Explaining their work, TMC members said a network of smaller help centres has also been set up in gram panchayats that are linked to the party’s block and district leadership.
“We remain open from 10 am to 5 pm. However, we do not leave until all the visitors are given a patient hearing and their problems solved or referred to others,” said Abdul Hanif, a TMC booth member.
Speaking with The Indian Express over the phone, a TMC youth leader in Barasat said that within two days of setting up a camp at Sashan gram panchayat, over 90 people came with their problems. “Problems included name correction in different documents and SIR list issues. We have also formed teams who will visit these people at their homes to solve their problems,” said Zia ul Islam, who is also deputy pradhan of Sashan gram panchayat.
When asked about Opposition parties conspicuous by their absence in the area, Islam said, “Twenty-five names of BJP workers were given in our area as BLAs. None of them has turned up so far. We called some of them, asking them to come because this is not election time. They refused,” Islam added.
At the Kirtipur gram panchayat, TMC leaders said their help centre was set up near the BLO’s residence. “In the last two days, we filled out forms for at least 110 people. This is after checking their details in their documents,” said Md Kalimullah, a TMC worker in charge of the centre.