New Delhi, Feb 27 West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has been leading a sustained protest against the Election Commission's Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls, lately claiming that the poll exercise may lead to the removal of 1.2 crore voters.
The State Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) unit has termed Mamata Banerjee's response to the SIR as "unfounded", arising out of fears of an imminent defeat in the upcoming Assembly poll.
Meanwhile, the Congress and CPI-M hold both the ruling and principal Opposition BJP responsible for fanning fear and creating a political narrative over a constitutional process.
The Congress held both the Trinamool Congress and the BJP responsible for building a political narrative over a constitutional process.
"First it was (Leader of Opposition in West Bengal Assembly) Suvendu Adhikari, who said two crore names will be removed after SIR, now the Chief Minister is claiming the figure at 1.2 crore," State Congress leader, Roahan Mitra, said while speaking from Kolkata.
According to Roahan Mitra, Mamata Banerjee is indicating the exclusion of Muslim voters citing the figure.
"We are firmly against the building of a political narrative. They (BJP) are trying to scare people with false information to create a religious divide before the election. They are both responsible for the deaths of innocent people during the SIR exercise," he added.
Incidentally, the Congress held a sit-in protest on Friday in front of the state chief electoral office in Kolkata against alleged "flaws" arising out of a "hurriedly held SIR exercise".
Former West Bengal BJP President Dilip Ghosh has claimed the Trinamool Congress Chairperson Mamata Banerjee is worried about losing the upcoming Assembly election, implying the Trinamool Congress has been winning on the support of fake voters.
"It's her (Mamata Banerjee) admittance to the number of duplicate and fake voter names that were earlier included to help the party win," Ghosh said, adding that he has earlier also said that she (Mamata Banerjee) has been worried of the SIR process identifying such electors.
Meanwhile, the CPI-M has put the ball squarely in Mamata Banerjee's court for the involvement of "outsiders" in the SIR process, echoing an allegation made by State Congress leader Roahan Mitra too.
"How can people from outside the state conduct an electoral roll exercise where they are not familiar with the custom and depend on AI to establish electors' bonafide?" CPI-M leader Sujan Chakraborty asked, alleging Mamata's role in getting them to West Bengal.
"They can't distinguish a Bengali-speaking Indian Muslim from alleged Bangladeshis and so-called Rohingyas," he claimed, however, adding later, "The (state's) ruling party has been winning on the votes cast by a large number of 'ghost' voters."
The ongoing debate stems from the Chief Minister quoting the number while addressing an event organised by the Jain community in Kolkata, where she said feeling "saddened" by the claimed deletions.
Mamata Banerjee had pointed out that initially 58 lakh names were removed, marked as absent, shifted, deceased, or repeated.
Thereafter, "secretly, under a rule that did not previously exist, called 'logical discrepancy', 80 lakh names will be deleted," the Chief Minister alleged.
"Even if we take 20 lakh of them as dead, some 1 crore and 20 lakh names will still be removed," she added.
The Trinamool Congress Chief has repeatedly contended that large numbers of genuine voter names are being removed from the electoral list and the SIR process being allegedly used to manipulate the electorate ahead of the upcoming elections.
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