Since the special intensive audit began in West Bengal this month, Gerul Mandal has only one thing on his mind: to return home in time to get his name on the voters’ list. A construction worker in Angamaly in Kerala’s Ernakulam district, the 28-year-old receives anxious phone calls from his family asking when he plans to return.
But Mandal does not have money to travel. “The (census) forms have already arrived and we fear that if we do not participate in the process, we will miss the vote,” he said.
It’s a fear shared by West Bengal migrants across India. As the process of reviewing electoral rolls begins in the state ahead of next year’s Assembly elections, migrant workers from West Bengal are scrambling to find documents and return home in time for the census. Although there is now an option to fill out the form online, many are unsure how to do so or say they need to go home to arrange their documents.
On October 27, the Election Commission announced the schedule for holding the elections SIR in 12 states and union territories, including West Bengal. She said that the process of submitting counting forms will take place between November 4 and December 4, after which the draft electoral lists will be published on December 9. After that, claims and objections can be submitted until January 8, 2026, and the final lists will be published on February 7.
Amid this rush, there is a difficult choice for migrant workers – return home and risk losing wages, or stay behind and risk being excluded from the voter list.
It’s a choice that 22-year-old Habibullah Biswas, a construction worker in Kochi, Kerala, knows he has to make. A resident of Murshidabad, he has just returned to Kerala after Durga Puja celebrations, but must now prepare to return home.
“We need at least six months to submit our application,” says an agitated Biswas. “I don’t have money to make another trip home. Heavy rains have halted construction work in Kerala and work is just starting to pick up. My parents told me that the forms have arrived, but we can’t rush back home.”
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In Bengaluru, 58-year-old carpenter Sheikh Shahzada waits at a train station to board a train to Kolkata with his daughter. SIR is one of the main reasons for his return.
“Party members will help us register on the electoral list,” he says, without mentioning which party he belongs to. “We have been voters in Kolkata for more than 80 years, but there are fears that harm will be done this time to keep people off the voter list,” he adds.
In Malad, Mumbai, 35-year-old Masipur Mallick wonders if the SIR exercise requires his attendance. Originally from Uluberia district in West Bengal, Mallick, a builder, lives in Mumbai with his wife Manoja and three minor daughters, and returning home on such short notice would be expensive.
“If I go now, my employers will reduce my daily wage and I am the only earning member in my family,” Masibor said. “My eldest daughter has a special disability, and traveling on such short notice will be difficult. We have sent pictures of our documents to our relatives and will go based on what they say.”
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The possibility of returning home to Hooghly also caused panic in Tarifa’s house in Maldah’s Malvani.
“If there is a problem and we are called, we will have no choice but to leave,” she says in panic. “But how will we do it? My husband, a worker, is the sole breadwinner for our family of five. We barely have enough money to cover our expenses.”
In jewelery units in Gujarat, workers’ associations held meetings on how to help the workers.
“We have spoken to local labor organizations about this measure,” says Aloknath Shaw, who owns a jewelery manufacturing unit in Rajkot and is president of Rajkot Bengal Young Star Group. “Workers do not need to return to West Bengal in order to obtain an SIR certificate. Labor organizations only need documents and photographs that their relatives can provide.”
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In Golden Ahmedabad, Abdul Rauf Yaqoob Shaikh, president of the Samast Bengal Samaj Association, also held such meetings. “We have decided that those who need to go to get it done should go. But those who want to settle in Gujarat can deposit their old voter ID cards and get new ones made in Gujarat itself,” he says.
Amid the panic, there is also confusion. In Mumbai’s Ambujwadi, 53-year-old Amal Biswas is puzzled as to why his wife has been called back to participate in the process, when his family is no longer registered as voters in Thakurnagar in North 24 Parganas in West Bengal.
“I have been living in Mumbai since 2002 and all my documents – Aadhaar and ration card – have my Mumbai address. We are registered voters here. So, I am confused why my wife, whose documents also have a Mumbai address, is being asked to produce the documents,” he says.
(tags for translation)Voter List Review
