‘Will expose BJP-EC conspiracy’: Mamata Banerjee protests voter roll deletions
Launching the dharna at the Esplanade Metro Canal, Banerjee accused the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Election Commission of conspiring to “disenfranchise Bengali voters”.
“I will expose the BJP-EC’s conspiracy to disenfranchise Bengali voters,” the TMC chief said at the start of the protest.
He also claimed that many voters were wrongly marked as dead in the revised voter rolls. “I will introduce the voters who were declared dead by the Election Commission at this protest site,” Banerjee said.
The sit-in comes two days ahead of the proposed visit of the Election Commission delegation to the state and marks an escalation in the ruling All India Trinamool Congress’ clash with the poll body.
The protest was announced by TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee earlier this week, accusing the Election Commission of conducting a “politically motivated” Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter rolls that could disenfranchise lakhs of legitimate voters months before the assembly elections.
According to official data released on February 28, around 63.66 lakh names (about 8.3% of the electorate) have been removed since the SIR process started in November last year, reducing the voter base from roughly 7.66 crore to just over 7.04 crore. More than 60.06 lakh voters have also been placed in the “under jurisdiction” category, meaning their eligibility will be determined through legal scrutiny in coming weeks.
TMC leaders claim that minority voters, migrant workers and economically weaker sections are disproportionately affected by the deletions. Abhishek Banerjee had earlier claimed that the app was aimed at deleting over a million voters and said the chief minister would outline the party’s next plan of action during the protest.
(With input from institutions)
