Kolkata, Dec 22 (PTI) West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday lashed out at the Election Commission, alleging that there were “gross errors” in the draft rolls published following the enumeration
phase of the SIR in the state.
Addressing a meeting of TMC’s Booth Level Agents (BLAs) at the Netaji Indoor Stadium here, she also dubbed it an exercise “riddled with blunders from A to Z”.
Banerjee alleged that the EC was appointing observers without informing the state government, and working to foster the BJP's interests.
“The Election Commission is working only as per the directions of the BJP. There are gross errors in mapping of voters during the enumeration phase of the special intensive revision (SIR) exercise in the state,” she claimed.
Alleging that thousands of “legitimate voters” have found their names deleted from the draft rolls, Banerjee said, “We don’t know how the problems of so many genuine electors can be solved in so little time.”
In the draft electoral rolls published after the enumeration phase, 58,20,899 names have been excluded, reducing the electorate to 7.08 crore in West Bengal.
Around 1.36 crore entries have also been flagged for "logical discrepancies", while 30 lakh voters were categorised as unmapped – a significant percentage of whom are likely to be called for verification hearings over the next 45 days.
The TMC supremo also asserted that central officers who have been appointed micro observers for SIR hearings have little knowledge of the local language, and are “unfit” to conduct the verifications during the second phase of the ongoing revision exercise.
“Several central agencies have played a role in appointing BLOs. They have also appointed observers without our knowledge. The state will extend all cooperation to them, but I must know the details of all these people, including where they live and which departments they serve,” Banerjee stated.
The chief minister accused the EC of “forcefully” conducting the exercise, “which takes two years to complete”, within two months, ahead of the assembly elections so that the state is unable to carry out its development activities for a good six months.
“I have never seen such a shameless commission in the past, nor do I want to see a repeat of this current poll body in the future,” she said.
Without directly referring to Banerjee’s own Bhabanipur assembly constituency in south Kolkata from where nearly 45,000 names were deleted in the draft rolls, Banerjee said, “Several wards in the Kolkata municipal area underwent delimitations recently on account of which many addresses were realigned. That led to faulty mapping in the SIR rolls. This isn’t the fault of the BLOs, it’s an error of the commission”.
At that gathering of about 14,000 BLAs of the Trinamool Congress from Kolkata and its adjacent areas, Banerjee instructed party workers to reach out to all voters whose names have been erroneously deleted, and to remain vigilant about “outsiders trying to get their names included”.
“Our BLAs must reach voters at block levels, help them in filing their claims and objections and assist them during hearing sessions. Our councilors must assist the BLAs, wherever required. We will take strong action against councilors who will remain inactive during this phase.
“Attempts are being made by outsiders to get their names included in voters’ lists. You must remain vigilant, identify these people and raise objections,” she said.
Banerjee also reassured the Matua community members, and those belonging to minority communities to not worry about disenfranchisement.
“The BJP is trying to drive a wedge through the Muslims in Bengal. It is trying to divide the community,” she alleged.
Stating that not leaders, “but only grassroots TMC workers can stop the BJP from setting foot in Bengal”, Banerjee urged party supporters to go all out to resist the “devious strategies of the saffron camp” to capture power in the state.
“We will capture Delhi after we save Bengal from the clutches of the BJP,” the chief minister asserted. PTI SCH SMY RBT
