Accompanied by hundreds of party supporters and leaders, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday walked from her Kalighat residence to the Alipore Survey Building to file nomination papers for the Bhabanipur Assembly constituency.
After filing the nomination, the TMC supremo said that she would approach the Supreme Court again over the lakhs of voters deleted from the voters’ lists in the state following the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
“I am sad since the names of countless people have been deleted. Only 32 lakh names have been retained (in the adjudication process)… This happened because I filed a case in the Supreme Court. Fifty-eight lakh voters were deleted in the first phase. I will go to court again for those whose names were deleted,” she said, referring to the deletion of over 89 lakh names from the electoral roll – a fall of 11.62 per cent.
Out of the additional 27 lakh voters whose names were deleted from the electoral rolls after adjudication, more than 14 lakh will not be able to vote as the voters’ list for the first phase of the West Bengal Assembly polls has been frozen.
“More than 27 lakh voters who are under adjudication are yet to be retained in the electoral list. I am of the opinion that they should be given voting rights. The Supreme Court has also said that those under adjudication are genuine voters. People who are yet to be retained will appeal to the (appellate) Tribunal. What is the point of keeping the process frozen? We will take necessary actions,” Mamata said.
Questioning why the voter list for the first phase of polls was finalised despite the matter being pending before the tribunals, the chief minister said, “If people cannot cast their votes, what is the need to set up the tribunals?.. What is this? We will challenge it and try to understand it… I respect the Supreme Court, but I am not satisfied. When the Supreme Court directed that tribunals be set up and those whose names were cancelled could appeal, how was the voter list for the first phase frozen while the tribunal process is ongoing?”
Later, addressing election rallies in Hooghly district’s Arambagh, Balagarh, and Sreerampore, the TMC chief slammed the BJP for “conspiring” with the Election Commission for deleting the names of voters. “You (BJP) will not be able to defeat the TMC by deleting names. We will move the court again to resist the exclusion of names… We will fight legally to get the names included on the list,” she said.
Earlier in the day, Mamata walked nearly 600 metres with women supporters blowing conch shells to reach Alipore Survey Building.
Four persons representing Muslims, Punjabis, Biharis, and Gujaratis – the four communities that dominate the Bhabanipur Assembly seat – signed as proposers for her nomination. The four proposers were Ismat Hakim, actress-turned-politician and TMC Rajya Sabha MP Koel Mallick’s husband, Nispal Singh Rane, local TMC block president Bablu Singh, and Bhabanipur Education Society representative Miraj Shah.
Calling Bhabanipur her “karmabhoomi”, Mamata said, “I was born and brought up here in Bhabanipur only. I stay here 365 days a year. My life, my work, my movements — everything revolves around Bhabanipur. Everything in my life began from here. I thank and salute the people of Bhabanipur.”
“I appeal to the people of Bengal to vote for the TMC in all the 294 seats. I am sure that we will form the government,” she added.
Banerjee is pitted against BJP leader and Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari in Bhabanipur. In the last Assembly election in 2021, Adhikari had defeated Mamata in Nandigram by 1,946 votes. Later, she was elected from Bhabanipur following a bypoll.