Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee launched a protest on Friday against the alleged arbitrary deletion of voters’ names from the voter list following the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in the state.
Launching the protest near the Esplanade Metro Station in Kolkata, Banerjee targeted the BJP and the Election Commission. She accused them of conspiring to deprive Bengali voters of their right to vote and reiterated her resolve to expose it. TMC supremo Banerjee said, “I will expose the BJP-Election Commission conspiracy to deprive Bengali voters of their right to vote.” She also alleged that many voters were wrongly shown as dead in the revised voter list.
CM Banerjee said, “I will present at this protest site the voters who have been declared dead by the Election Commission.” She began her protest at 2:15 pm in central Kolkata.
It should be noted that the sit-in protest was announced by TMC National General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee on Sunday. Abhishek accused the Election Commission of politically motivated action that could disenfranchise millions of eligible voters months before the assembly elections. This protest by the TMC comes just days after the Election Commission published the post-SIR voter list, which significantly altered the state’s voter turnout.
According to official data released on February 28, approximately 8.3 percent of the state’s voters, or 63.66 lakh names, have been removed since the SIR process began in November last year, reducing the voter base from approximately 7.66 crore to just over 7.04 crore.
Furthermore, over 60.06 lakh voters have been placed under judicial scrutiny, meaning their eligibility will be determined through legal scrutiny in the coming weeks. This is a process that can change the electoral equations at the constituency level.
