Muslim CPM leader given Brahmin surname in Bengal SIR draft
17 Dec 2025

In an unusual incident during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter lists in West Bengal, Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM) state general secretary Mohammed Salim and his son Atish Aziz were assigned a Brahmin surname.

The error was highlighted by Aziz on Facebook where he shared a screenshot of his voter information showing "Awasthi" as their last name.

Awasthi is popular surname among Brahmins
Claim

"When I first cursorily scanned the list, there seemed to be nothing amiss....Later, when I revisited the draft electoral roll...I found a north Indian surname, Awasthi, appearing against the last name column. Though other details appear in both English and Bengali, the last name was only in Bengali," Atish was quoted as saying by The Telegraph.

His father, listed as a relative, also carried the Awasthi surname. Awasthi is a common surname among Brahmins in northern India, particularly Uttar Pradesh.

Aziz questions accuracy of voter list revision
Voter list scrutiny

Aziz questioned the accuracy of the SIR process, saying if such an error can happen to his father, a seasoned politician, it could have happened to others too.

"The error shows that a serious exercise like the SIR has been taken very lightly by the EC...The CEO and the chief election commissioner have turned SIR into a farcical exercise," the CPM leader told The Telegraph.

Salim criticizes Election Commission's handling of SIR
EC criticism

He said he would approach the CPM's Booth Level Agent for corrections.

According to The Telegraph sources, if there is an error in the draft electoral roll, voters can approach the booth-level officer, who will be available in their booth for the next month.

The draft voter roll released by the ECI on Tuesday shows a major overhaul with 58 lakh names deleted. Among these, 24 lakh voters were marked as "dead," 19 lakh "permanently shifted," and 12 lakh "missing."