Kolkata, April 7 West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday launched a scathing attack against the Election Commission of India (ECI) over the special intensive revision (SIR) in West Bengal, accusing the Commission of not even sparing members of different religious and charitable organisations in the exercise.
The Chief Minister addressed three campaign rallies in Nadia and North 24 Parganas districts. In two of the rallies, she specifically named the Swami Vivekananda-founded Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission and the Mother Teresa-founded Missionaries of Charity while attacking the Commission.
She said she felt sad on hearing that the names of 300 individuals attached to the Missionaries of Charity had been deleted in the course of the SIR exercise.
“Even monks of the Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission had not been spared, she added.
According to her, the Commission specially targeted districts with high populations of minorities and socially backward communities during the SIR exercise, with maximum names being deleted from these areas.
She said maximum deletions had taken place in districts like Malda, Murshidabad, North Dinajpur, South 24 Parganas, North 24 Parganas, and Nadia.
“In the Bangaon subdivision of North 24 Parganas, people from the Matua community had been targeted. Areas like Chakdaha and Haringhata in Nadia and Gaighata in North 24 Parganas had witnessed high deletion of names from the voters’ list,” she added.
The Chief Minister also accused the Communist Party of India (Marxist) of having a clandestine understanding with the Bharatiya Janata Party in several assembly constituencies.
She said CPI(M) leaders knew they would not win and would try to ensure BJP’s victory by dividing anti-BJP votes.
She added that CPI(M) leaders were resorting to tall talk even after being reduced to zero in the 2021 assembly polls and should be reduced to zero again this time.
Speaking on the occasion, she said the Trinamool Congress would give all necessary assistance to voters whose names had been deleted, so that they could regain their voting rights by approaching the Appellate Tribunals constituted for that purpose.
She alleged that the only aim of the BJP and the Commission was to selectively delete voters’ names and asserted she would never allow them to succeed in that mission.
--IANS
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