Scarred by lockdown, migrant employees return residence to vote in opposition to CAA-NRC

For a number of migrant employees within the districts of Malda and Murshidabad, which go to the polls within the remaining two phases, the nationwide Covid-19 lockdown final 12 months was a traumatic ordeal that left deep scars of their psyche. They are again residence this time round to keep away from a repeat of final 12 months, and to vote within the Assembly elections as they’re afraid of the BJP’s promise to implement the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the proposed nationwide National Register of Citizens (NRC).
As the second wave of the pandemic began raging in Delhi, 38-year-old Malda resident Akhtar Hossain began for residence — within the district’s Haldibari space — alongside along with his spouse and three kids.
“I work at a steel plant in Rithala in Delhi’s Rohini area. Last year I was stuck for 53 days in lockdown. I filled up many forms, called up leaders of various political parties. No one helped me. Lastly, I returned home in a truck. I was there almost without food in a huge helpless situation. This year, I could not take any risk. As the situation worsened, I started from Delhi to return home,” Hossain tells The Indian Express on the Rathbari More bus cease in Malda city.
He provides, “Last year the experience was a nightmare for us. So, I could not take a risk this year. I know that will I not get any work here. But, I know I can stay well with my families here and somehow we will survive. I’d have died had I been in Delhi and another lockdown was announced.”
Hossain’s expertise is shared by a number of different migrant labourers from the 2 districts who had been caught in different states final 12 months.
Rabiul Sheikh, 24, a resident of Dakshin Gajinagar in Murshidabad’s Dhulian space, is a mason by career. Last 12 months, he was caught in Chennai.
“This year, instead of Chennai we went to the Milan Mela ground opposite Science City in Kolkata for construction work. There are two reasons — one, following the start of the pandemic work dried up in Chennai; and the other reason, if lockdown happens again, we can easily return from Kolkata. I am back home now for personal work and to cast vote. We are not much eager to go outside for work. This is our compulsion because in Murshidabad there is no work for us,” he provides.
According to 30-year-old Mohammad Kalimuddin, a resident of Chinabazar in Malda’s Baishnabnagar space, there may be not a lot work for migrant labourers like him in Kolkata. “This year we went to Kolkata but we got only 10 days of work. Then, we returned. After the election, if Covid cases drop, we will again plan to go to Chennai.” he provides.
The lockdown final 12 months was not an ordeal for 45-year-old Debkumar Sarkar, who owns a fish and meat store in Noida. He weathered the shutdown there. A resident of Gajol in Malda, Sarkar says, “I returned with my family this year because we want to cast our vote. We have heard that this year casting vote is very important because we have to prove our citizenship.”
Amid the second wave, a number of labourers are returning residence to vote, confirms 31-year-old Lal Muhammed Sheikh. Both Sheikh and his father, residents of Samsergunj in Murshidabad, are “munshis” or contractors. They organize work for migrant labourers, who pay them a fee. The “munshis” additionally obtain cash from the businesses they lease the employees to.
“Every year we used to send around 150 labourers to Ghaziabad and Noida for construction work. Here they can earn only Rs 270 a day. There they used to get Rs 250 a day and three meals a day. During lockdown last year, we brought back every labourer around April and May. This year half of them returned, almost all are back to cast their vote,” Sheikh says.
He provides that these employees need to cease the BJP’s plans to implement the CAA, and the proposed NRC. The ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) is eager to mobilise these employees and breach the Congress’s maintain in these districts. Though Akhtar Hossain Hossain says migrant employees didn’t get any job — together with work underneath the 100 days’ job scheme — final 12 months after returning to the state, “this is the time to stop communal politics in our state and we have to choose those who can defeat the BJP”.
Kalimuddin, nonetheless, is extra vital of the ruling social gathering. He says, “TMC did not give us 100 days’ work. All the money went to panchayat leaders. So, we are fed up with this.”

In the final elections, 29 of the 34 seats within the two districts went to the Left and the Congress, that are contesting the polls this time as a part of the Sanjukta Morcha, or United Front, together with the Indian Secular Front.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the Congress gained the Berhampore and the Malda South constituencies, whereas the TMC bagged Murshidabad and Jangipur. The BJP opened its account within the area by profitable Malda North.

The CPI(M) is assured of receiving the assist of the migrant employees from the world, claiming that it was the one social gathering that stood with them throughout final 12 months’s lockdown. A neighborhood CPI(M) chief in Samshergunj, Mohammad Jakir, says, “During the lockdown, we were the only ones to stand with the migrant workers. There was no one else to arrange quarantine centres and other facilities for them.”