Muslim CPM Leader Mohammed Salim Mistakenly Listed as Brahmin in West Bengal Voter Roll

Md Salim serves as a former MP and current CPM's Bengal general secretary

Kolkata:

A significant error occurred during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter lists in West Bengal, where CPM's state general secretary and former MP, Mohammed Salim, along with his son, Atish Aziz, were mistakenly assigned the Brahmin surname "Awasthi" in the draft voter roll released yesterday.

Aziz highlighted this error on Facebook, stating that the Election Commission of India has "made me a Brahmin, and Mohammed Salim too," while sharing an image of his voter information. The surname 'Awasthi' appeared in Bengali in the 'last name' section. The document also listed Mohammed Salim as Aziz's father, with 'Awasthi' similarly appearing as Salim's surname.

"My father has been in politics for decades. If such an error can occur in his case, one can only imagine what might have happened to others," Aziz remarked, as reported by PTI.

Salim utilized this opportunity to criticize the Election Commission. "The error demonstrates that a critical exercise like the SIR has been handled very casually by the Election Commission. They failed to make adequate preparations or provide proper training to officials conducting this task," he told The Telegraph newspaper. He further alleged that the Chief Electoral Officer and Chief Election Commissioner have reduced the SIR to a "farcical exercise."

Atish has indicated he will contact CPM's Booth Level Agent to rectify these errors. Meanwhile, sources from Bengal's Chief Electoral Officer's office have minimized the significance of this mistake, assuring that such errors will be corrected before the final list is published in February.

The Election Commission published the draft voter roll following the Special Intensive Revision exercise in the election-bound state yesterday. The revision resulted in the removal of 58 lakh names, with 24 lakh voters marked as "dead," 19 lakh as "permanently shifted," and 12 lakh as "missing."