Kolkata, February 18 – One of the special observers overseeing the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) has identified a peculiar case where the name of a Muslim youth was linked to a Hindu senior citizen in "progeny mapping," indicating the latter as his father.
This unusual family connection came to the attention of one of the special observers during the "super check" phase of the draft voter list, which was published last December.
The unusual family connection was identified during the super-check of the draft voter list of the Panskura (Paschim) Assembly constituency in West Midnapore district of West Bengal. In this case, a Muslim voter, Sheikh Rais Ali, has been linked with a Hindu voter, Bhuban Chandra Bera, as the latter's son.
Sources in the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of West Bengal said that the special observer, who had detected this case, raised a pertinent question about how the Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) or the Assistant Electoral Registration Officer (AERO) concerned cleared the linkage without proper background checks of both voters.
It is learned that the special observer decided to report the matter to the Election Commission of India (ECI)'s headquarters in New Delhi and allow the election panel to make a decision.
"Having different religions as father and son is not impossible. However, when such a case surfaced during the revision process, it deserved a thorough background check before the linkage was cleared. In this case, that background check was not done," said a source in the CEO's office.
This is not the first time that unusual family data in "progeny mapping" has come to the notice of the commission. Earlier, there was an instance where a 65-year-old voter had two sons, one 60 and the other 59. This means that the person became a father of two sons when he was just five years old.