Chandan Basu leads the angry have-not pack

Forget ordinary citizens, even the crème de la crème of Bengal can be denied voting rights. The awful truth dawned on Chandan Basu as he turned up at the polling station in Salt Lake on Monday morning.

To their utter dismay, Jyoti Basu’s son and his wife found their names missing from the electoral rolls. An irate Basu complained to the polling officer and the local councillor, but to no avail. Basu had recently shifted from FD Block to CF Block, but then he had filled up the requisite form to notify change of residence. “I may not be a politician but I belong to a political family. If this is the state of affairs here, what will happen to common citizens?” he asked.

Basu was not alone. Noted theatre director Rudraprasad Sengupta also could not cast his vote because his name was off the voters’ list. So couldn’t his actor-wife Swatilekha. “Three days ago, party workers came to my house to give us voter slips. They told us that Swatilekha Sengupta and I were not on the list. We were disappointed. So, we simply did not go to vote today,” said Senguta.

There were many more in the city who couldn’t exercise their franchise on Monday. Sunita Aggarwal (35) who lives in the Sangam Apartments on Wood Street went to St Xavier’s College to cast her vote around noon but was shocked to know that her name did not figure on the list.

“I asked the polling officer to give me the number of the candidate. I didn’t get it. I had a valid ID card but nobody was willing to listen to me. Now I have to wait for another five years to vote,” lamented Aggarwal. She was planning to complain to her favourite candidate from the South Kolkata Parliamentary constituency but changed her mind when her neighbours told her that at least seven flat owners were not on the voter’s list.

Manju Pachisia and Rita Pachisia, residents of the same building, too, met with the same fate. While Manju returned disappointed from the Lord Sinha Road booth, her sister-in-law Rita Pachisia couldn’t cast her vote at the St Xavier’s College booth. Their neighbours, Kuldeep Kaur and Rimple Singh, also returned an unhappy lot from the booth.

Disappointed at not being allowed to vote for the first time, teenagers Sunny and Inderpreet Singh strolled aimlessly around St Xavier’s College. “We would have enlisted had the polling officials come home. But none came this time,” said Inderpreet. Better luck next time.