SIR Faux Pas: CPM's Md Salim, Son Get Hindu Surname In Draft Bengal Voter List

CPI-M state general secretary Mohammed Salim and his son, Atish Aziz, have been given a Brahmin surname 'Awasthi' after an unforgettable error in West Bengal's draft electoral rolls published by the Election Commission.

The error has given more ground to the opposition to double down on their criticism of the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls, questioning how there can be such inconsistencies in an elaborate electoral exercise governed by a poll body.

Names of more than 58 lakh voters have been deleted on various grounds, including death, migration and non-submission of enumeration forms. After these deletions, the state's draft electoral rolls are expected to carry the names of 7,08,16,631 voters, 58,20,898 fewer than 7,66,37,529, which was the electorate before SIR, according to official data.

The name discrepancy was flagged by Atish in a social media post, where he wrote that he is a registered voter in the Kolkata Port Assembly constituency and that on official records, his name is registered as Atish Aziz. He noticed that the last name e “Awasthi” had been added to his name, with the same error reflected in his father’s entry as well, while reviewing and verifying the draft electoral rolls.

"If such a mistake can occur in the case of someone who has been in public life for decades, it raises serious questions about what ordinary voters might be facing," news agency PTI quoted Aziz as saying.

The party leader's son remarked that while some BJP leaders and sections of the media claimed that SIR would be used to target Muslims, the process instead led to both him and his father receiving Hindu surnames. He said that the SIR turned him and Salim  into "Brahmins" by adding the surname.

Aziz questioned the logic behind spending large sums of money into an exercise wherein basic inconsistencies continue to surface. He had also attached images of the draft rolls to supplement his claim and added that the CPI(M)’s booth-level agent has taken up the matter with the office of the Chief Electoral Officer. 

The Election Commission carried out the phase 2 of SIR exercise of electoral rolls in 12 states and union territories — on similar lines as it conducted in Bihar.