Photo: Maktoob
Motab Shaikh, a Muslim candidate representing the Indian National Congress, secured victory in the Farakka Assembly constituency of West Bengal, defeating Bharatiya Janata Party candidate Sudhir Chowdhuri by a margin of over 8,000 votes.
His win came after a legal battle in which his name had initially been removed from the electoral rolls during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process but was later reinstated.
The Supreme Court permitted Shaikh to approach an appellate tribunal in Kolkata to challenge his removal from the voter list. Subsequently, on April 5, the tribunal directed the Election Commission of India to include his name in an additional voter list, marking the first case resolved by the body, Maktoob Media reported.
Retired Justice T. S. Sivagnanam observed that the Election Commission had cited only technical grounds for the deletion without adequate explanation, and concluded that Shaikh’s passport was sufficient proof of identity, noting no inconsistencies in his father’s name across documents.
In another case, Mohammad Mottakin Alam was also restored to the voter list after the tribunal found that discrepancies related to age and parentage were not sufficient grounds for exclusion. Alam later contested from the Ratua Assembly constituency but finished third with over 31,000 votes, while All India Trinamool Congress candidate Samar Mukherjee won the seat with more than one lakh votes.
The elections followed a large-scale revision of electoral rolls in West Bengal, during which around 91 lakh voters, approximately 11.9% of the electorate, were removed by April 6. A significant number of appeals against these deletions remain pending before the tribunal.
The Special Intensive Revision exercise, initially launched in Bihar and later expanded to multiple states and Union Territories, has faced strong criticism. Critics have argued that the process lacks transparency and scientific rigour, and have described it as unconstitutional and undemocratic, suggesting it has led to the denial of voting rights on a large scale. The door-to-door verification drive has also reportedly caused stress among officials, with reports of deaths emerging from several states including Kerala, Rajasthan, Gujarat, and Madhya Pradesh.
Opposition parties have accused the Election Commission of hastily implementing the revision without sufficient safeguards, particularly in states preparing for elections in 2026, such as West Bengal.