GUWAHATI: It has come to light that Manju Devi, the granddaughter of the first Congress president of Assam, Chabilal Upadhyay, has been tagged as ‘D’ (doubtful) voter.
Manju Devi, 55, belongs to the Gorkha community and lives at Chandmari area of Tezpur in Sonitpur district. She is a mother of two and the granddaughter of freedom fighter Chabilal Upadhyay, who was the Assam’s first Congress president in 1921.
But even being a granddaughter of a freedom fighter, Manju Devi was tagged as a ‘D’ (doubtful’) voter in 2005. And, she is yet to be freed from the tag.
According to assembly records, 1,19,559 people were marked as 'D' voters in the draft electoral rolls published on September 15, 2018. This number was 1,60,051 in the 2005 electoral rolls and 2,02,092 in 1997.
While a majority of the 'D' voters belong to Bengali-speaking Muslims and Bengali Hindu communities, many Gorkhas, Koch Rajbongshis and other ethnic groups have also been carrying the tag for a long time now, which makes them ineligible for inclusion in the NRC. Around 20,000 Gorkhas are still carrying the 'D' voter tag.
