Poll official in Assam who cannot vote as he is D voter

By TwoCircles.net Staff Reporter,

Barpeta: Most unexpected things often happen in India and the elections are also no exception from it. Like many others one Sahjahan Kaji of Assam’s Barpeta is also branded as a Doubtful voter or D voter for his ‘doubtful identity’ as an Indian citizen and he has been barred from voting since 1997.

But the irony is that Kaji who is a school teacher has been performing election duties as a poll official since 1991. He is the one who identifies the voters at the polling booth whether they can vote or not but he himself does not have the right to vote.

Sahjahan Kaji worries for an uncertain future.


“This is what I’m going through. This is injustice to me but I’m getting any relief. I verify people if they can vote but the government has banned me from performing my democratic right,” a frustrated and dejected Kaji told TwoCircles.net at his residence. The 52 year old teacher of Dhakaliapara Middle English Maddrassa last cast his vote in 1985 but suddenly in the voters’ list in the year 1997 he was tagged as Doubtful voter.

He has submitted all the documents to prove his citizenship but so far nothing has developed. He also alleged that officials at the office demand bride to get his things done. Even his wife Amina Begum is also termed as Doubtful. However, their elder son Sarowar Hussain has been lucky not face the D voter tag.

Kaji displays the NRC entry record of 1951 of his father.


Now, the couple is living under the shadow of fear of getting arrested. “We are scared if police arrest us and keep us in the detention camp at this age. We do not want to leave the house and the family members to stay at the detention camp,” Kaji added as he displayed various documents which also include the NRC of 1951 of his father Amjad Hussain.

On the other hand, Khuda Baux, in his 80s has the land documents which were under the British Rule yet he was tagged as Doubtful. Though he has been voting since 1966, in the year 197 suddenly his name was tagged as D voter.

Kaji and his wife display the documents which should prove their Indian citizen.


Out of his five sons, two have been named as D voters along with their wives.

However, the family has been able to clear the D tag from their names but that too paying bribe. Khuda Baux whose father’s name was Kuddush said that they had to pay at least Rs 15,000 per head to clear the name from D voters.

“It’s very difficult to work with the government officials and police. They are not at all cooperative to solve our problems. Even police also try to take bribe threatening to arrest us and put us in the detention camp. A spelling mistake in the name has created many like this and at the end of the day people like has to suffer,” Khuda Baux added.

Khuda Baux hold the land documents of British era in his shop.


Now, he can breathe a sigh of relief as Khuda Baux has been cleared to cast his vote in the coming 2016 assembly. This time he won’t be able to exercise his democratic right as formalities to include his name are yet to be done.

These people now want that their representatives in the parliament take some measures to relief them from this kind of harassments. “Along with erosion, this is one of the major problems here. So many people are tagged as D voters in spite of having all the documents. We want that the leader who represents the constituency take some step to provide us relief from this,” said another villager.

According to the government records there are 1,43,227 ‘D’ voters in Assam. Sonitpur district accounts for the highest number with 24,909 ‘D’ voters followed by Barpeta with 22,814 ‘D’ voters, Nagaon with 15,642 and Dhubri with 13,303. Assam has total 1,87,22,435 voters including 96,94,051 male voters and 90,283,84 female voters, according to final photo-electoral roll 2014.