A 79-year-old man long presumed dead by his family returned to his hometown Khatauli in Muzaffarnagar district of Uttar Pradesh to collect documents for the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls in West Bengal,
Sharif Ahmad, settled in West Bengal for the past many years, had gone ‘missing’ since 1997 when he moved out of his hometown in UP following his second marriage after 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 news agency PTI.
“We tried to trace him over the years, even travelled to West Bengal and followed up the address provided by his second wife, but all attempts failed,” Waseem said.
“With no contact for decades, his four daughters and the family assumed that he was no longer alive,” he added.
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 compelled him to re-establish contact with his native place.
During his visit, he found that many of his close family members, including his father and brother, had passed away.
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 the brief 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 Dec
The poll panel's 27 October SIR instructions had asked voters to fill forms and trace themselves or a family member to the electoral roll of the last intensive revision, held in 2002 in West Bengal.
The voters were required to be ‘mapped’ to the 2002 electoral roll, either through their own presence or that of a relative on that roll, to continue as voters in future
Seeing him after so many years was a deeply moving experience for all of us.
On 16 December, the Election Commission published West Bengal's draft electoral rolls following SIR, deleting the names of more than 58 lakh voters on various grounds, including death and migration, and redrawing voter profiles across districts and border belts ahead of the 2026 assembly polls.
Trinamool Congress leader Abhishek Banerjee met the Election Commission bench 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”.
