New Delhi: Gafur Daud Patel travelled over 120 kilometres from Mangrol port in Junagadh to Gandhvi village in Devbhumi Dwarka district to do just one thing: check whether his and his family’s names were on the voter list. It was, however, to no avail.
The 44-year-old fisherman lost his home and space for docking his boat and fishing equipment last year, when state authorities had arbitrarily demolished his home.
As Gujarat went to polls on May 7, Patel was among the 700 other fishers and their families – all Muslims – who were unable to cast their vote.
In March 2023, authorities had demolished the homes of these fisherfolk in the Harshad port of Gandhavi village and in Navadra. Both are located in the Devbhumi Dwarka district.
Authorities claimed that settlements owned by these fishermen were ‘illegally built’ on government land, even as 69 and 122 fishermen families from Gandhvi and Navadra had legally petitioned for the regularisation of their homes, citing a 1981 Gujarat government circular which allowed for the same.
As The Wire previously reported, these demolitions were one-sided in nature, and hundreds of the region’s Muslim fishermen have since been denied the right to fish, dock their boats, and earn a livelihood in the region.
This time, the same fishermen found themselves disenfranchised.
“Ever since our homes were demolished, police and local officials have been patrolling the area, harassing us, or telling us to leave whenever we try to go back there. Most of us shifted to Rupen harbour, or further away to ports in Porbandar, Junagadh, Gir Somnath,” Patel said.
Also read: In ‘Selective’ Demolition, Muslim Structures Razed but Temple Spared in Gujarat’s Dwarka
The displaced fishermen and their families thus found themselves forced to relocate, and their names struck off the voter lists. Gujarat’s Chief Electoral Officer P. Bharathi told the Indian Express that the 700 fishermen could have “raised an objection” or “enrolled themselves at the new place where they relocated ”. But those such as Sattarbhai Bharucha pointed out that police officials had already told them during the demolition drives to not apply for changes of address in their Aadhaar cards, voter IDs, and other documents.
“We were told that we might have to move back later. So we didn’t apply for the changes, but now we aren’t able to go back nor could we vote”, Bharucha sighed.
But even as coastal Gujarat’s Muslim fisherfolk could not vote amid this confusion, across the country, voter suppression, particularly of Muslims and the marginalised, was witnessed in direct and indirect ways throughout the general elections.
The 2024 Lok Sabha elections were marred with a series of hate speeches and anti-Muslim dog whistling by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, repeated failures on part of the Election Commission (EC) to act as per its mandate, and Opposition candidates being threatened, facing arbitrary hurdles, or brazenly jumping ship. Amidst all this, almost every phase of the seven-phase voting saw voters being intimidated.
In Munger, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) candidate approached the Supreme Court seeking a re-election, citing booth capturing and the denial of voting rights to marginalised castes. In Haryana, thousands of police personnel complained to the state EC about their votes being ‘manipulated’ via postal ballot. In Maharashtra, voters claimed they were ‘pushed and slapped’ and denied their right to vote.
And for Muslims, disenfranchisement happened through the quiet removal of their names from the voter lists, to overt physical violence and threats, to redrawing of constituencies via delimitation processes that thwarted both their vote numbers and electoral representation.
Overt violence and intimidation
The third phase of voting saw instances of physical intimidation in western Uttar Pradesh’s Sambhal parliamentary constituency, including a viral video showing voters in the region’s Obri village running outside a school as police lathi-charged them.
Screengrab from a video of UP Police allegedly chasing voters out of a polling booth in Sambhal.
Soon after, a series of news reports revealed that police officials beat up and threatened the Muslim voters in the region.
For daily-wage worker Mohammad Mustagir, the enthusiasm he felt early on the morning of May 7, petered out into shock and duress after his ordeal with the police.
The police beat my 70-year-old father when he went to vote. Later, after my brother and I carried him back home, I tried to go to the polling station to cast my vote. But some eight to ten policemen accosted me, tore my Aadhaar card, and then dragged me to Asmouli Thaana (police station),” Mustagir claimed.
Neither Mustagir nor his sister Shabana were able to vote, as police snatched and tore their Aadhaar cards.
While X (formerly Twitter) was filled with videos emerging from Sambhal that showed police brutality, the official account of the Sambhal police later shared a video featuring Mustagir denying allegations of assault and voter suppression. Since this incident, Mustagir asserts that he was “threatened” and “blackmailed” into giving this statement on video.
“They beat me up and took me to some house in a jungle and said they’d kill me in an encounter if I don’t speak. So I was forced into giving the statement on camera. I had no choice!” he told The Wire.
Soon after the incident, Scroll.in and Al Jazeera tried to reach out to multiple police officials in Sambhal, many of whom declined to comment. Meanwhile, deputy superintendent of police Anuj Kumar Chaudhary told Scroll.in that they had merely carried out a drive “to stop fake voting”.
Similar accounts of violence and voter intimidation also emerged from the region’s villages of Mubarakpur, Mansoorpur, and Shahbazpur.
Zia ur Rahman, an MLA and Sambhal constituency’s Samajwadi Party (SP) candidate, said that despite eyewitness accounts and media reports, no response or action has been taken so far by the police or the administration. He also alleged that several SP workers were arrested and detained prior to the day of voting, and he and his fellow party workers filed complaints with the district magistrate, police officials, and other authorities.
“We went to the DM, the SP, and even filed a writ [petition] in the Allahabad high court because of all that transpired in Sambhal. What we’ve seen here is unprecedented in independent India’s election history. At least 500, if not more, Muslims here must’ve been deprived of their right to vote,” he said.
Also read: ‘Majority to Become Second-Class Citizens’: Modi Fires up Hindu Insecurity in Last Leg of Campaigns
Missing names, impersonations, voter slips denied
If Sambhal saw the most overt and clear kind of voter suppression, elsewhere in both western UP and beyond, Muslim voters repeatedly alleged hostile election officials, deletion of their names from electoral rolls, and other unexpected obstacles.
Nearly 250 km away from Sambhal, in Mathura, multiple Muslim voters told Scroll.in that they were denied their right to vote. Some also alleged that their Hindu counterparts from the same localities were able to exercise this right. The constituency reportedly recorded its lowest-ever turnout in two decades.
For 70-year-old Ghaffar Pir, a minor mistake on his Aadhaar card barred him from his right to vote. The senior citizen said that while his name on the voter list said Ghaffar Pir, his identity card says Ghaffar Pir Baksh.
“I have lived here and have been voting for the past 50 years. My father’s name or the honorific being used was never an issue before. But this time, the BLO (Booth Level Officer) stopped me from voting,” he sighed.
Similar allegations of misspelled names, denial of voter slips, and even impersonation have been reported. Waris, 55, and eight members of his family were denied their votes when Mathura went to the polls on April 26.
A resident of Govindpur locality, Waris told The Wire that polling officials in his Ward No. 22 refused to let him vote and claimed that someone had already cast a vote under his name.
“They said that the votes were already cast, and they didn’t let me or my family vote. I don’t understand how this is possible. We tried to speak with them and seek help but it was so hot, and we felt so helpless that we just decided to go back home,” Waris said. Both Ghaffar and Waris added that “no Hindu neighbours” in their areas appeared to face any such hassles, and claimed that their voting went on seamlessly.
A man shows his inked finger after voting in Kashmir in 2009. Photo: Public.Resource.Org/Flickr (CC BY 2.0 DEED)
Allegations of voters’ names being arbitrarily deleted also dotted across north-east Delhi constituency’s Khajuri Khas. The Muslim-majority locality had witnessed communal violence in the 2020 Delhi riots, and locals reportedly accused the BJP of deliberate foul play in ensuring their names were struck off the voting lists.
Gujarat yet again saw a recent slew of allegations of voter suppression. Activist Shabnam Hashmi, along with her citizens’ fact-finding team, wrote to the Election Commission to complain of suppression of voters in Muslim-majority neighbourhoods. Additionally, voters from Dalit, Other Backward Classes, and Darbar communities alleged being denied a fair vote in home minister Amit Shah’s Gandhinagar constituency.
Gujarat yet again saw a recent slew of allegations of voter suppression. Activist Shabnam Hashmi along with her a citizens’ factfinding team wrote to the Election Commission to complain of suppression of voters in Muslim-majority neighbourhoods, as well as voters from Dalit, OBC and Darbar communities being denied of a fair vote in home minister Amit Shah’s Gandhingar constituency.
PRESS RELEASE 1/2
“BJP Said Do Not Vote, All Votes Must Go to Amit Shah”–
Allege Many Gandhinagar Voters from Dalit, OBC, Muslim and Darbar CommunitiesANHAD Citizens’ Team Asks ECI to Urgently Investigate Voter Intimidation and Suppression in Home Minister’s Constituency…
— Shabnam Hashmi (@ShabnamHashmi) June 3, 2024
Their complaint details multiple allegations of intimidation in the Sanand taluka, Kalol municipality, and beyond. Meanwhile, Ahmedabad-based veteran journalist Dilip Patel tweeted a series of videos of how voters were discouraged from voting in Shah’s Gandhinagar constituency. Notably, the Muslim-dominated Juhapura saw speeches and rallies by locals which clearly discouraged local Muslims from going to vote.
“Vote dekar koi faayda nahi, apna vote mat do kisi ko bas (There is no use of you all voting, do not give your vote to anyone),” a man could be seen addressing a gathering in Juhapura.
અમિત શાહના મત વિસ્તાર ગાંધીનગરના જૂહાપુરામાં ફતેહવાડી નહેર ફાર્મ હાઉસમાં મુસ્લિમો મતદાન ન કરે એવું પ્લાનીંગ ભાજપના નેતાની હાજરીમાં બેઠક માં કરાયું હતું. ચૂંટણી પંચ પગલા ભરે. @CEOGujarat @CollectorAhd @ECISVEEP @isudan_gadhvi @sonaldatta @shaktisinhgohil pic.twitter.com/aqjLKI2vU6
— Dilip Patel દિલીપ પટેલ (@dmpatel1961) May 9, 2024
Mujahid Nafees, a Juhapura local and human rights activist affiliated with the Minority Coordination Committee (MCC), confirmed the veracity of these videos. He said that a “well coordinated attempt” was planned by roping in locals from Juhapura’s Muslim community to dissuade others from voting.
“This is Amit Shah’s constituency. You can already see what has happened to some of the people who tried to contest elections against him this year. This government can resort to any tactic, and no Muslim here will admit that they were doing Shah’s bidding, but some people were,” Nafees said.
He added that locals would not register their protest against the same, “because there is so much fear, anyone’s home can be bulldozered here. Why raise an outcry over this when it’s best to ignore it?”
Delimitation in Assam, gerrymandering in Kashmir
More direct and overt ways of voter suppression are visible now. The use of state policies and legislative machinery to change voting demographics was witnessed in the state of Assam.
With 14 parliamentary seats, the delimitation exercise in the state took place in 2023, redrawing the demographic profiles of voters. In particular, the redrawing of boundaries led to significant shifts among the state’s nearly 35 million Muslims in the assembly constituencies.
The All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) party claimed that the delimitation exercise will reduce the number of Muslim-majority assembly constituencies in the state from 29 to 22. Meanwhile, in the ongoing Lok Sabha elections, the Barpeta and Dhubri parliamentary constituencies saw the most severe changes with a shift in Muslim voting population from Barpeta to Dhubri constituency.
Scroll.in reported how the Muslim population dramatically declined in Barpeta, from 60% to 35% of the electorate, resulting in the inability of any Muslim candidate to win from either the Barpeta parliamentary or assembly seats.
Meanwhile, sociologist Nazimuddin Siddique pointed out that the delimitation exercise has now resulted in Muslim votes being concentrated in just three parliamentary constituencies: Dhubri, Karimganj, and Nagaon. The resulting demographic shifts in the electorate, he cautioned, would also reflect in the representation of Muslim leaders in parliament.
“This time, the Congress gave the ticket to a non-Muslim candidate from Nagaon. The problem is that already, it is impossible for a Muslim to win from a Hindu majority area, but now by taking Nagaon for granted because they are majority Muslim voters, they decided not to even field a Muslim candidate,” he said. A sociology professor at Jamia Millia Islamia, Siddique, emphasised how in a state with nearly 35% of its population being Muslims, the delimitation process has resulted in a scattered Muslim electorate now being concentrated and clubbed into limited constituencies.
“The chief minister has been giving rabidly communal speeches, there is no representation of Muslims in the state government, in senior police roles, in the upper judiciary. And then you have evictions, denial of housing, lakhs of people being classified as ‘doubtful’ or d-voters, the NRC (National Register of Citizens) and so on. This is all part of a communal process,” the scholar added.
Separately, in the Muslim-majority Kashmir Valley and adjacent Jammu, Article-14 reported how the BJP successfully worked to target Muslim electoral influence in Jammu and Kashmir, where many Muslims have long boycotted or rejected voting in the previous election years.
Reports showed how after the reading down of Article 370, the constitution of a delimitation commission in 2020 resulted in five new assembly seats coming up in the Hindu-majority Jammu province but only one in Muslim-majority Kashmir.
With redrawn boundaries resulting in demographic shifts and fears of more importance being accorded to Hindu voters, the BJP had reportedly been working to give reservation benefits to Pahari tribals to swing influence in the Muslim-majority Kashmir Valley and Muslim-majority regions of Jammu, before the Lok Sabha elections.
Whether these gerrymandering and delimitation exercises yield results on June 4 remains to be seen. But incumbent Congress MP Abdul Khaleque from Assam’s now-altered Barpeta seat conceded that “there is a huge loss for Muslims in terms of assembly seats”.
Khaleque declined to comment on the impact of delimitation on the present elections, maintaining that the results would indicate a sign of things to come.
Yet others like the SP’s candidate Zia ur Rahman in Sambhal, however, admitted to “unprecedented voter suppression”.
“On one hand, our Election Commission has been spending crores to increase the number of voters, to promote and advertise the elections and push for voting. On the other hand, the Sambhal police and administration worked overtime to instill fear among Muslim voters. They have undermined our Constitution,” he added.
