‘Home was razed, now vote gone’: In Assam, hundreds of evicted find names struck off electoral roll
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For the last seven months, Bodiat Jamal’s family has been living under a tarpaulin sheet in Assam’s Dhubri district – on the spot where their home once stood.
In July, the homes of 1,400 Muslim families of Bengali origin were razed by the Assam government to make way for a power project.
While several moved out of Chirakutha village, the 42-year-old mason and his family stayed on.
Last week, Jamal found that his name and that of nine members of his family had been struck off the final voter list prepared by the Election Commission after a special revision.
“We have been voting here for the last 24 years,” Jamal said. “This year I will not be able to vote.”
He is also worried about travelling to Upper Assam to work without a voter identity card.
“I work in Dibrugarh district. But I returned last month as soon as I got a message that an objection had been filed against my name in the voter list,” Jamal told Scroll. “Without a valid voter identity card, it is risky to work outside, especially in the current time.”
For months now, Assamese ethnonationalist groups in Upper Assam have been intimidating Bengali-origin Muslim workers, and asking them to leave. “I can't go to work again if my voter card is...