New Delhi, Oct 27 BJP national spokesperson Pradeep Bhandari on Monday launched a scathing attack on Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress, claiming that the party is "afraid" of the deletion of fake voters and has entered "panic mode" regarding the Special Intensive Review (SIR) of the electoral roll.
This came as the Election Commission of India (ECI) prepares to conduct SIR in West Bengal ahead of next year's Assembly elections.
The ruling Trinamool Congress is against the very idea of conducting the exercise and has been constantly claiming that SIR is an indirect ploy of the Union government and the BJP to slap NRC in West Bengal.
On the other hand, the BJP has claimed that the reason why the Trinamool Congress has been opposing SIR in West Bengal is their fear that the names of illegal voters would be deleted from the electoral list.
In a post on X, Bhandari said, "Mamata afraid of fake voter deletion? Mamata Banerjee's TMC has gone into a full-blown panic mode over SIR. Why? Because the days of fake voters ruling Bengal's democracy are ending."
He further claimed that the "loud drama" from West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is not for the people, but for her "biggest illegal vote bank" -- consisting of illegal migrants, bogus voter IDs, and cut-money machinery -- that has kept her in power.
"She knows when fake names are deleted from the voter list… TMC's politics of infiltration collapses. Mamata needs to go to save Bengal from illegal infiltration," Bhandari added.
The SIR will be taking place in West Bengal amid strong opposition from the Trinamool Congress government.
The CPI(M)-led Left Front, though it is not principally against conducting the exercise, has claimed that the exercise should not result in the deletion of names of genuine voters from the voters' list. In West Bengal, there have also been controversies over the appointments of booth-level officers (BLOs) and Electoral Registration Officers (EROs).
The last time the SIR was conducted in West Bengal was in 2002.
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