In September, Ibrahim Ali’s home in Assam’s Kamrup district was flattened by bulldozers.
This was part of the state government’s eviction drive against alleged illegal settlers in Kachutali village. Three days later, two men were killed in police firing when the officials returned to chase the displaced families off the land.
For Ali, a 33-year-old driver, that was not the end of his difficulties.
Around November 17, Ali, his elder brother Saheb Ali and sister-in-law Jorina Begum received separate notices from the electoral registration officer, informing them that their names might be deleted from the voters’ list of the Dimoria Assembly constituency.
The reason cited by the electoral registration officer was that they had “ceased to be ordinarily resident” in the constituency after their eviction. However, Ali has been living in makeshift huts made of tin and covered by tarpaulin sheets in the same village, not far from his earlier home.
District officials told Scroll that such notices were served on over 1,000 Kachutali residents – one-third of its voters – many of whom had been evicted in the September drive.
The election officer of Kamrup Metropolitan district, Manash Jyoti Bora, told Scroll that the notices were sent as part of a special summary revision of the electoral roll.
Such an exercise involves reviewing the voter list annually and unveiling a draft electoral roll.
“A re-verification process of 3,000 voters from Kachutali, where the eviction took place, is going on,” Bora said. “The verification of 500 people has been done and most of their names will be deleted.”
‘Our citizenship will be doubted even more’
The notices written in English, seen by Scroll, summoned Ali and the others to appear before the Dimoria electoral registration officer on November 20, to record their opposition – if any – to the proposed deletion of their names. If they did not appear, their names would be deleted without informing them, the notice said.
Even though the notice was issued on November 5, they were handed over to the residents three-four days before the hearing.
“The notice was in English. Initially, we did not understand what it said,” Ali said.
Over 400 residents, all of them from the Bengali-origin Muslim community in Kachutali, went to appear for the hearing. Ali was among them. During the hearing, Ali and others signed the notice they had received and a register book.
According to Ali, an official told them that their names would be deleted from the electoral roll in Dimoria. “Our homes have already been demolished,” Ali said. “If they delete our names from the voter list, our harassment will only increase. They anyway call us outsiders, and doubtful voters. Our citizenship will be doubted even more.”
In Assam, Muslims of Bengali-origin are often vilified as illegal immigrants and their citizenship is contested even though their ancestors migrated to the state before Partition.
This is a rare instance of authorities purging the electoral roll of the names of those turned homeless by an eviction drive. However, former chief election commissioner Ashok Lavasa, told Scroll: “Prima facie, eviction or demolition cannot deprive an eligible person of his right to vote.”
According to leaders of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, the drive was being carried out on the instructions of Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma. “These people have come from different places and started to live in this tribal belt in the last 20 years,” said Dibyajyoti Medhi, a BJP member from Sonapur. “This has changed the demography significantly. They have availed government benefits and schemes. Their names have been included in the electoral rolls and they got government houses. All these issues were brought to the notice of the chief minister and he immediately instructed for reverification [of the electoral roll].”
Ali’s family had settled in Kachutali from Rajapukhuri area in Darrang district around 23 years ago. “My parents voted at Rajapukhuri but we first voted in Kachutali only,” Ali said. “I voted in Kachutali two or three times.”
Medhi added that Kachutali had been declared a tribal belt in 1950, and so the evicted, most of whom are Bengal-origin Muslims, could no longer stay there. “After the eviction, only those who have documents proving they came here prior to 1950 can stay in Kachutali,” Medhi said.
Voting rights of the homeless
The notices to Ali and other Kachutali residents were issued under the provisions of the Representation of the People Act, 1950, and the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960.
Under Section 22 of the Representation of the People Act 1950, the electoral registration officer for a constituency can correct the entries in electoral rolls if any erroneous or defective entry is found, or if voters have changed their “place of ordinary residence” within the constituency – provided voters have been given “a reasonable opportunity to be heard”.
Bora explained: “As the eviction took place, they are not ordinary residents of Kachutali anymore, their names will be deleted. They have to register themselves under different polling stations.”
Another Sonapur-based election official, who is overseeing the verification process, confirmed this. “Of the thousand-odd people served notice, the majority of them are in the process of losing the voting rights in the Kachutali area,” the official said. “We told them they can apply for voter registration with a new address wherever they go.”
Ali and other residents told Scroll that most of the evicted families have left Kachutali. About 200 people live in makeshift camps in the compound of a masjid. “We have been threatened and ordered to leave. We don’t have any place to go.”
When asked if Ali and others could be considered as homeless residents of the same constituency, the Sonapur-based election official said, “Homeless people have the right to vote but they have to provide an address. Voter cards are issued against a particular address. The makeshift camp where they stay does not have a legal or permanent address.”
However, according to the Election Commission of India’s manual, a homeless resident does not need to provide documentary proof to be able to vote.
“EC has instructions that in certain cases where applicants like the homeless are unable to furnish documentary proof, enrolment will be done on the basis of field verification,” an Election Commission official in Delhi told Scroll.
The EC manual says: “In case of homeless persons, the booth level officer will visit the address given in Form 6 at night [for two nights in a row] to ascertain that the homeless person actually sleeps at the place which is given as his address. If the officer is able to verify that the homeless person actually sleeps at that place, no documentary proof of place of residence shall be necessary.”
To avoid “an eventuality of a homeless foreign national getting registered,” as a voter, “the booth level officer should record the person’s statement about the place of his birth and the place of previous residence.”
A change of address
Several Kachutali residents, already struggling with the challenges that come from being uprooted, were worried about the difficulties in getting their names back on the electoral roll in a new place.
Guwahati-based advocate A Sabur Tapader told Scroll that it is difficult to get a new voter card but not impossible, though there may be some scrutiny of older voter lists and land documents. “Discrepancies in names, ages, and addresses can pose significant challenges. Authorities may scrutinise such variations to ensure accuracy and authenticity,” he said.
Congress leader Aman Wadud, who is also an advocate, criticised the action against the evicted villagers. “The administration first evicted people from their homes with brutal force and bullets,” he said. “Now they have issued a notice saying that your name will be deleted from the electoral roll because you don't reside here. Through this cyclic persecution, the administration exhibits their hatred towards a group of people only because they profess a particular religion.”
Another Kachutali resident Akkas Ali, who was served a notice, agreed. “This is stubbornness and revenge by the police and administration because the people had protested and resisted the police.”
With additional reporting by Ayush Tiwari
