Keeping Assam out of SIR exercise BJP's ploy to shield its own-ruled state: Abhishek Banerjee

Kolkata, Oct 28 Trinamool Congress general secretary and Lok Sabha MP Abhishek Banerjee on Tuesday questioned the rationale behind keeping Assam out of the purview of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, even though the northeastern state, like West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala, is also scheduled to go to the polls next year.

“Assembly elections are scheduled next year in Assam as well, and that state also shares international borders. But why has Assam been kept out of the SIR’s purview? It is clearly a ploy by the BJP to exclude a state governed by them from the revision exercise,” Banerjee told mediapersons in Kolkata on Tuesday.

Reacting to the remark, the state BJP leadership said there was no need to respond to the Trinamool leader’s comments, as Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar had already clarified on Monday the reasons for keeping Assam out of the SIR exercise.

Banerjee further alleged that while earlier, citizens used to elect the government, the current ruling party at the Centre was attempting to reverse the process “so that the government can choose its voters.”

“Their aim is not to make the voters’ list error-free. In reality, SIR stands for ‘Silent Invisible Rigging’. The last time such a revision was carried out in West Bengal, it took almost two years to complete the exercise. Now, they are claiming it will be completed in just two months,” he said.

The Trinamool Congress leader claimed that if the genuine objective was to prepare an error-free electoral roll, the revision should be conducted over an adequate period, not hastily. “The real intention is to delete the names of genuine voters from the list under the garb of revision,” Banerjee alleged.

He also warned that if the names of genuine voters were deleted following the SIR exercise, the Trinamool Congress would launch protest demonstrations outside the Election Commission of India (ECI) headquarters in New Delhi.

Referring to the recent suicide of a 57-year-old man, identified as Pradeep Kar, at Panihati in North 24 Parganas district, reportedly out of fear of being affected by a possible National Register of Citizens (NRC) in West Bengal, Banerjee blamed the Union government and the ECI for creating panic among citizens.

“The Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar are responsible for this tragedy. FIRs should be registered against them. The BJP will have to pay for this,” Banerjee said.

Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor