Gulbarg Society massacre survivor makes another bid to enter voters list

Ahmedabad: Gulbarg Society massacre survivor Firozkhan Pathan handed over a memorandum to collectorate officials on Friday, demanding that his name be added to the voters’ list ahead of the municipal corporation election. He also wants the names of 700 others to be included.

Pathan contested in the 2019 Lok Sabha election from the Gandhinagar seat against Amit Shah, the BJP president at the time and the current Union home minister.

Later, Pathan did not qualify to contest in an AMC ward byelection in October 2019 as his name does not figure in the voters’ list. The names of about 700 residents of Sukun Society on Vejalpur-Juhapura road, including Pathan’s, are missing from the list. The society falls under the Maktampura civic ward of the city.

“We have been staying at this address since 2002,” said Pathan, who has joined the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI). “We voted in all local, assembly, and general elections till 2019. And then the names of 700 persons went missing from the voters’ list.”

Pathan said that the AMC election is scheduled to be held by the year-end and he and other members of SDPI want to contest in it. “We approached the authorities several times, but our names are not being added to the voters’ list,” Pathan said.