'I am alive, I have not died. Look, I am standing and speaking,' says Imarti Devi who is listed as deceased and whose name has been deleted from the voter's list.
M I Khan reports from Dharaichak, a village in Bihar where 200 voters have been removed from the voter's list.
Shanti Devi, in her mid-30s, is a vocal supporter of the Opposition's allegations of 'vote theft' after the names of five members of her family were deleted from the voter list.
Shanti is not alone. Anandi Prasad, Sushila Devi, Kiran Devi, Sanju Devi, Subodh Kumar and Imarti Devi share one thing in common: All of them are residents of Dharaichak village under Phulwarisharif block, about 15 km from Patna.
They are genuine voters, but their names were deleted by the Election Commission of India during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in poll-bound Bihar.
They are seven of the over 200 voters in Dharaichak whose names were deleted for various incorrect reasons.
Shanti Devi is upset and angry about the deletion of names from the voter list.
"We have been living in the village and voted in the last two elections -- the 2024 Lok Sabha and 2020 Bihar assembly elections -- but our names were deleted with the reason 'shifted'. It is either a mistake or a deliberate attempt to remove voters to prevent them from participating in electing the next government in the state," says Shanti Devi, who was busy cleaning dung from her buffalo on a rainy day.
She was initially reluctant to speak as her husband and others were outside the house, but when asked if her name had been removed from the voter list like many others in her village, Shanti Devi came forward to tell her story.
"We are poor, my husband works as a labourer in construction in Patna. We cannot understand why our names were removed. Even though we filed enumeration forms in July during the SIR of the electoral rolls, our names are missing," says Shanti Devi, standing at her front door sporting a red bindi on her forehead and sindoor, symbols of a married woman.
"In the EC list, we have been shown as 'shifted', but the fact is that we are in the village and are not migrating anywhere for work," she adds.
Another villager, Anandi Prasad, who is in his early 60s, says his name was removed from the voter list for the first time.
"Never before has such a thing happened. This time the names of so many villagers have been deleted from the voter list."
"I have been voting for over four decades, but now my name is not on the voter list. Is this not a move to deprive people like me of my Constitutional right to vote?" asks Anandi, a marginal farmer.
Santosh Kumar, a young home tutor, has a different story; his name is on the voter list, but the names of six members of his family were deleted.
"The names of my mother, Sushila Devi, my elder brother, Subodh Kumar, and his wife, Anita Devi, along with their sons, Sonu Kumar and Kaushal Kumar, were deleted even though they are all present in the village. This is something unbelievable but true. It is an example of how names were deleted from the voter list in the ongoing SIR."
Santosh Kumar, who is a Booth Level Agent (BLA) for the Rashtriya Janata Dal, says while he has submitted forms again for the inclusion of their names, it is not a simple matter.
"I have heard and read reports that similar things have come to light in Bhojpur, Katihar, Araria, Muzaffarpur, Darbhanga and other districts. There may be some design behind it."
Sushila Devi says she is illiterate and rarely goes out of the village, but her name was deleted for being 'shifted'. "Is it not an attack on my voting rights, when I have been casting my vote for years?"
Subodh Kumar, an autorickshaw driver, asks why the government was in a hurry to complete the SIR and why the entire exercise was conducted in a month.
"What happened to us and hundreds of others was bound to happen because the BLOs (booth level officers) were not serious," he claims.
Kiran Devi, a middle-aged woman in Dharaichak, never expected her name would be deleted. "I have done nothing wrong and have been voting for several years."
A few metres away, Nagwanti Devi, an elderly woman, says the government has done something that has never been done before.
"I am elderly and have voted election after election. Now my name has been deleted; will this not deprive me of my Constitutional rights?" she asks.
Residents of several houses in this village have more or less the same story. Sanju Devi's name was also deleted. Unhappy about it, she asks how the names of so many villagers could have been deleted from the voter list.
"I cannot understand why this has happened; the government should apologise to the voters."
Ranjan Kumar, a young man, says the names of five members of his family were deleted. "All of them filled in enumeration forms, but they are on the deleted list."
Satyadeo Prasad says four members of his family were found on the deleted list, with the 'shifted' tag. "We are farmers; there is no question of us shifting from our village because farmland is the main source of livelihood for farmers like us."
Booth Level Official Raju Choudhary has pasted a list of deleted voters for booths 83 and 84 of the village.
The local BLO confirms that there are more than 1,200 voters across both booths. According to the list, the names of 214 voters, including 33 who are deceased, were deleted.
Imarti Devi's name appears on the list of the dead while others were deleted as 'shifted' and 'absent'.
Imarti is alive and well in the village, but she is 'dead' on the voter list.
Imarti says, "Hum zinda hai aur ka mar gelye hai. Dekha hum khada hai, bol rahal hai (I am alive, I have not died. Look, I am standing and speaking)."
Following a Supreme Court directive, the ECI recently published the names of 6.5 million people who were removed from the draft electoral rolls as part of the SIR exercise in Bihar.
The ECI has published the names of voters who were deleted due to being 'Absentee', 'Shifted', or 'Dead'.
Photographs curated by Manisha Kotian/Rediff
Feature Presentation: Rajesh Alva/Rediff
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