KOLKATA, April 19 -- Sabuj Das, a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) panchayat member and Hindu refugee from Bangladesh, says the Supreme Court's direction to protect the voting rights of delisted citizens if appellate tribunals allow their appeals has come "too late".

Bengal's East Burdwan district - where Das is an opposition member in the Trinamool Congress-controlled Kalekhatala 2 panchayat under the Purbasthali North assembly seat - is due to vote in the first of the two-phase Assembly elections on April 23.

"The Centre gave us an opportunity to become Indian nationals under the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), and the Election Commission of India (ECI) marked the CAA certificate as one of the valid documents for the SIR (special intensi...