A 79-year-old man, long thought dead by his family, returned to his hometown of Khatauli in Uttar Pradesh’s Muzaffarnagar district to collect documents for a special intensive revision of electoral rolls in West Bengal,
Sharif Ahmad, who settled in West Bengal in recent years, had been “missing” since 1997 when he moved away from his hometown in UP after his second marriage following the death of his first wife.
Ahmad arrived in Muzaffarnagar on December 29 to collect documents for the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise, his nephew Waseem Ahmad told PTI.
“We have tried to trace him over the years, even traveling to West Bengal and tracking the address provided by his second wife, but all attempts have failed,” Waseem said.
“His four daughters and out-of-touch family assumed for decades that he was dead,” he added.
He returned to his hometown to collect documents
Sharif said he returned to his hometown to collect documents related to the SIR exercise in Bengal, which prompted him to reconnect with his native place.
During his visit, he found that many of his close family members, including his father and brother, had died.
The emotional reunion brought joy to the family, Waseem said. “Seeing him after so many years was a deeply moving experience for all of us,” he said.
After a short visit, Sharif returned to West Bengal’s Medinipur district, where he lives with his family, to complete the SIR formalities.
SIR in Bengal: Draft list published on 16 December
The SIR instructions dated October 27 asked voters to fill up forms and trace themselves or a family member to the electoral roll of the last intensive revision held in 2002 in West Bengal.
Electors had to be “included” in the 2002 Electoral Roll, either through their own presence or the presence of a relative on that roll, in order to continue as voters in the future.
Seeing him after so many years was a deeply moving experience for all of us.
On December 16 Electoral Commission released West Bengal’s post-SIR draft electoral rolls, deleted the names of over 58 million voters due to various reasons including death and migration, and redrawn voter profiles across districts and border belts ahead of the 2026 parliamentary polls.
Trinamool Congress leader Abhishek Banerjee met the Election Commission over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in West Bengal and alleged that the party’s concerns were not addressed and the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) was “aggressive”.
