The publication of the electoral list of West Bengal by the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Saturday has sparked a heated row between the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The list shows over 60 lakh names deleted and another 60 lakh names under ‘adjudication’.
TMC spokesperson Arup Chakraborty alleged that the EC is trying to delete genuine voters’ names through “logical discrepancies”.
“Firstly, EC is working as a servant of BJP. BJP has given them a target which by hook or crook, they have to achieve. We have no problem with deleting names of dead or voters who have shifted. But why harass and delete names of people through logical discrepancies,” he claimed. He further claimed that, “Bengal’s chief secretary Nandini Chakraborty is under adjudication,” and warned that the party “will fight this out in court, but the people of Bengal will hit the streets and give BJP a befitting reply.”
TMC MLA and Mayor of Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) Firhad Hakim asserted that the party will prove they are genuine voters. “We will prove we are Indians and voters in Bengal. We are not infiltrators. We have full confidence in the court and judiciary. Even through adjudication we will prove we are genuine voters,” he said.
The TMC also highlighted the case of one of its sitting councillors in Naihati municipality, whose name has been deleted from the electoral list. The party alleged a “voter-purge conspiracy” and accused the BJP of trying to rig the elections.
“The full, filthy extent of @BJP4India and @ECISVEEP’s SILENT INVISIBLE RIGGING now stands exposed before Bengal’s eyes,” the TMC tweeted.
TMC, meanwhile, highlighted the case of one of its sitting councillors in Naihati municipality, whose name has been deleted from the electoral list. The party alleged a “voter-purge conspiracy” and accused the BJP of trying to rig the elections.
“The full, filthy extent of @BJP4India and @ECISVEEP’s SILENT INVISIBLE RIGGING now stands exposed before Bengal’s eyes,” the TMC posted on X. ‘In the final electoral rolls, Naihati Municipality Ward No. 2 Councillor Sushanta Sarkar and his mother Arati Sarkar have been DELETED. An elected representative and his family erased like ghosts in this voter-purge conspiracy,’ it added.
However, BJP leaders dismissed the TMC’s allegations as “dirty politics”.
Sukanta Majumdar, Union MoS Education and BJP Lok Sabha MP, said the TMC is trying to politicise the issue. “TMC is trying to politicise the thing and playing dirty politics. Some names are deleted and some names are under adjudication. So it can’t be said that those names have already been deleted. Those names will be looked into by the judicial officers who have been given the responsibility and then many of their names will remain. But TNC is just trying to heat up the situation because this was their plan from the very beginning.”
BJP State President Samik Bhattacharya accused the TMC of trying to mount pressure on the judiciary. “It is a shameful state of affairs when the chief minister is desperately trying to mount pressure on the judiciary. It is highly shameful, unfortunate and a face loss for West Bengal,” he said.
“We are not concerned with TMC. Where we have been restrained to fill our form 7, wherever form 7 was burnt, where police captured our form 7 and so many BJP workers were ruthlessly beaten up, we are concerned about that. No SIR, no vote, EC has to accept all our form 7s,” Samik Bhattacharya said.
CPI(M) leader and former Rajya Sabha MP Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya criticised the EC’s approach, saying it has created a mess. “My take is that a very simple thing: updating of electoral role was a regular exercise of the Election Commission. The EC itself has created a mess demanding certain documents to be produced for the purpose of getting enrolled, which is totally uncalled for, unless you specifically identify someone to be a non citizen you cannot and you do not have the authority under the constitution to ask for production of documents” he said.
He added that the EC should have conducted a door-to-door survey instead of deleting names politically.
“They ought to have gone door to door survey and get the names enrolled. And see those who were dead and not found that their names are deleted. Instead they did it politically. Now the list is out, people have been put into difficulty unnecessarily and this will create chaos until the people are satisfied that their names have not been deleted for no reason. Let us wait. Every state is getting irritated, agitated,” Bhattacharya added.