Voters 'under adjudication' march towards CEO's office to reclaim their voting rights
Telegraph | 29 March 2026
Saifuddin Ahmad Khan, 55, is worried whether his wife, Naima Aktari, 48, will be able to vote in the upcoming elections, as her name does not appear in the two supplementary lists released so far.
Tanya Parveen, 31, said her 85-year-old grandmother, who has voted in every election, has been placed “under adjudication”.
Saifuddin and Tanya were among many who marched in a rally from Park Circus to the office of Bengal’s chief electoral officer on Saturday afternoon, braving the scorching sun and united by a determination to reclaim their voting rights.
Others whose names had been cleared in the latest list also joined the march, walking in solidarity with those still under adjudication and facing the anxiety and stress of uncertainty.
Saifuddin, an accountant at a private hospital, said his wife was called for a hearing because the name of her father in the 2002 voter list did not match the one on Naima’s Aadhaar card.
“My wife’s name was on the 2002 list, yet she was called for a hearing. She submitted her Aadhaar card and school pass certificate, but her name was still put under adjudication,” he said. The couple are voters in the Kasba Assembly constituency.
Saifuddin said that the BLO informed them that multiple voters from their part of the constituency were also under adjudication. “No one is explaining clearly why her name remains under adjudication. We are only being told to wait,” he said.
Tanya, a research scholar, described a similar ordeal faced by her grandmother, 85, a voter in Rajarhat New Town.
Tanya’s grandmother was summoned due to an alleged mismatch in the spelling of her husband’s name on the 2002 roll and on her Aadhaar card.
“She has already submitted her passport and bank documents. At her age, repeatedly asking her to prove her identity is distressing and humiliating. There is no clarity on how decisions are being made. It creates fear,” Parveen said.
When the post-SIR roll was published on February 28, over 60.06 lakh voters had been placed under adjudication.
On Friday night, the Election Commission released the second supplementary list. By that time, judicial officers had disposed of 37 lakh adjudication cases, but only 22 lakh names were included in the first two supplementary lists. The remaining 15 lakh names have not been published, and the reasons are unclear.
Saturday’s rally, organised by multiple rights organisations, began from the Park Circus seven-point crossing. The groups, which have been staging a sit-in protest at Park Circus for the past 26 days, said the march was part of their ongoing agitation.
The rally moved through CIT Road, the Moulali crossing and SN Banerjee Road. Police stopped the marchers near Lenin Sarani, allowing six protesters to proceed to the Bengal CEO’s office on Strand Road, where they submitted a memorandum.
“We wanted to meet the CEO, but a representative from the CEO’s office met us. The official said that since the matter is being heard by the Supreme Court, they cannot do anything,” said Sharmistha Roy, a member of one of the organisations.
Many rallyists held placards and raised slogans demanding the inclusion of voters marked under adjudication. One of them, Sanam Sultana Baidya, 32, said that the adjudication process should not restrict her right to vote.