Name deleted: Women voters live in confusion, amid uncertainties
The Statesman | 3 April 2026
In Bhowanipore Assembly constituency that has turned into the principal political battlefield in 2026 elections, several women voters with their names deleted from the electoral roll are juggling twin crises ~ LPG cylinder shortage and struggle to get their names enrolled as electorate this poll season.
For the ruling party, women voters have played a crucial role in the past elections. With welfare schemes like Laxmi Bhandar and Kanyashree, the Trinamul Congress has found a large chunk of vote bank among the women electorates. However, the deletion of names of several women voters during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) is keeping them running from pillar to post while putting efforts to keep up the kitchen and their right to adult franchise. The Statesman tried to reach out to some of the women in the constituency whose names were deleted from the list of eligible voters recently. The electorates fearing their names might not be reconsidered by the tribunal refused to mention their original names in the news report.
Rahima Bibi (name changed on request), has spent three days standing for hours in serpentine queues for an LPG cylinder as her kitchen fuel is almost over. Even after so much effort, the resident of Ekbalpore is still waiting to get a cylinder. Adding to the woes of the 71-year-old is the news of her name getting deleted from the voters’ list. Rahima has tried to approach some of the BLOs but none could tell her the exact process of getting re-enrolled in the list of electorates. Having hardly any formal education, making an appeal to the tribunal online is not an option for her. On the other hand, lack of information regarding the place for submission of the hard copies of the documents through offline mode coupled with her age-related ailments, have left Rahima Bibi amid uncertainties this poll season.
For Seema (name changed), a resident of Ward 77, the scenario is nothing different. Several calls and even visiting a few party workers have not been fruitful so far. Facing a deletion in the list has left the 57-year-old struggling between arranging an alternate method of cooking while approaching people to find out where she could exactly submit her appeal for reconsideration of her electoral roll inclusion. “My husband died in 2000 and I brought my daughter alone. Having no male face at home, I spent the early years working in households as a maid to manage the living cost of my daughter. My parents lived in Bihar and died long ago in the 90’s. They also did not have any property documents as they lived as a caretaker in a house the owner of which had shifted to Mumbai. In such a chaotic life, I got my name enrolled in the voter’s list after 2002. After learning about the deletion of name, I have approached BLOs and party offices but none are able to tell me where the documents could be submitted for reconsideration,” rued Seema.