A day after SIR exercise is done ::: BJP in jubilant mood, says West Bengal is looking for CHANGE --- Trinamool is leaking wounds, says deleting One crore voters was pre-survey target of EC

 People of West Bengal want real ‘Pariborton' -- screamed BJP national president Nitin Nabin 

On the other hand, sheer frustration is palpable in the Trinamool Congress camp 

Trinamool Congress MP and party's general secretary Abhishek Banerjee on Sunday flayed the Election Commission over the post-SIR electoral rolls alleging that the “target of deleting over one crore voters was decided even before the exercise began”.

 

Nitin Nabin kicked off BJP's ‘Paribortan Yatra’ ahead of the Assembly polls - which is perhaps only 50 days away.

Addressing a crowded rally in Cooch Behar in north Bengal, a traditional stronghold of the Lotus party, the BJP chief said 50 lakh “infiltrators”  from Bangladesh had been removed from the state’s voters’ list. He asserted --  “time is up for illegal immigrants” in Bengal.

The BJP's ‘Paribortan Yatra’ will culminate in a mega rally on March 15 at Kolkata’s Brigade Parade Ground, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to address a public meeting. 

 

Union Home Minister Amit Shah is also likely to grace the occasion.

This year's battle for West Bengal is seen as a Do or Die contest between the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC and the BJP -- which emerged as a principal opposition party in the state in 2019 parliamentary elections and 2021 assembly polls. The once-dominant Left parties and the Congress party had drawn blank in 2021 assembly polls and hence the battlelines in the state are now drawn between TMC and the Lotus party. 

“Even before the commencement of SIR, these leaders had said that 1 crore to 1.25 crore voters will be deleted. They had fixed a target. The Election Commission is acting accordingly,” alleged Trinamool Congress leader.

Abhishek Banerjee said the BJP was unable to win elections politically and was therefore trying to “influence the poll result by deleting genuine voters by using the Election Commission”.

“However, deleting genuine voters won’t yield any result for the BJP. They will not win more than 50 in the assembly polls,” Abhishek said. 

West Bengal now has 7,04,59,284 voters and 60,60,475 of those names are “under adjudication”.

Notably, after the draft rolls were published last December, the total number of electors was 7.08 crore.

The Election Commission has published the electoral rolls on Saturday, Feb 28th after its special intensive revision (SIR) exercise and as per Supreme Court's directives.  

As per Supreme Court's orders, the judicial officers from West Bengal, Jharkhand and Odisha are working to complete the process of adjudication.

As many as 5,46,063 names were deleted from the voters’ list on the basis of Form 7 (for objections) submitted by individual electors and political parties.  

In the chief minister’s constituency, Bhowanipore, 47,111 voters have been deleted. In 2021, Mamata Banerjee had initially suffered a humiliating defeat in Nandigram against Suvendu - a former Trinamool leader himself. She later won Bhowanipore seat in a by-election.  

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had strongly opposed the SIR exercise, alleging it was a “Union Home Minister’s trick” designed to create panic and destabilise her administration.

She has repeatedly vowed: “I will not allow NRC or detention camps in Bengal. Even if they slit my throat, no one will be driven out.” She even made an appearance in the Supreme Court during the hearing on the case. Needless to add, BJP national president Nabin flayed her for the alleged theatrics and said:  

“Mamata Banerjee rushed to the courts to protect infiltrators in the voter rolls because they are her party’s vote bank. But when women face humiliation, you choose to look the other way,” he said.

ends