In Bengal, a battle over who gets counted

Draft rolls published last month shed 5.82 million names, the deletion percentage of 7.6% being the lowest among states that go to the polls this summer

For close to 25 years, Bharat Mahato has pulled his trusted rickshaw through the lanes of north Kolkata, expertly swerving between decaying buildings, past sagging balconies and under loops of wires slicing the sky into claustrophobic strips. On the mossy green seat of his hand-drawn rickshaw are often stacked bundles wrapped in cloth, piles of scrap, or metal boxes. A trip earns him around ₹150.

People during hearings under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls, at a centre in Balurghat, West Bengal on January 2. (PTI)

Last month, he got word that a local school teacher had come looking for