The name of Trinamul Congress (TMC) Hasan candidate and Birbhum Zilla Parishad sabhadhipati Kajal Sheikh is absent from the first supplementary voter list as well, putting his candidature under threat.
The supplementary list, released close to Monday midnight after judicial scrutiny, does not include his name. The Hasan Assembly constituency in Birbhum district will go to the polls on 23 April, with the last date for filing nominations set for 9 April. Kajal Sheikh, however, remains confident that his name will be included before the deadline.
Failure to secure inclusion would make him ineligible to contest on a TMC ticket from the Hasan Assembly seat.
Notably, neither Kajal Sheikh nor his 90-year-old mother feature in the supplementary voter list. Both were called for a hearing, but their names were also missing from the final voter list published on 28 February.
“This is a political conspiracy against me. My aged mother and I were born here and are Indian citizens, yet our names do not appear in the voter list, despite my being elected as zilla parishad sabhadhipati,” Kajal Sheikh said.
Kajal Sheikh is considered a protégé of Abhishek Banerjee and a known rival of Anubrata Mondal.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is scheduled to visit Birbhum district on 26 March to launch her South Bengal campaign for the Assembly polls. At this juncture, attention will be on her response to the situation concerning Kajal Sheikh.
A member of the TMC core committee in Birbhum, Kajal Sheikh played a key role in the 2023 three-tier gram panchayat elections and the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, in which the party won both seats in the district despite the absence of Anubrata Mondal.