Kolkata, March 2 West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday criticised the Election Commission over the deletion of names from the final electoral rolls of the state following the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise, and asserted that she would win from the Bhabanipur Assembly constituency "even if one voter is left".
Speaking at an event at the Netaji Indoor Stadium to celebrate Holi, Banerjee alleged a nexus between the Election Commission and the BJP to remove names of genuine voters from the electoral rolls in West Bengal. She accused the poll panel and the BJP of bias and of curtailing the democratic rights of the people of the state.
"The Election Commission has deliberately deleted genuine voters. I am shocked. This is a very sad and inhumane state of affairs. They have deleted names of so many voters in my Bhabanipur constituency. It is a conspiracy hatched by the Election Commission with the help of the BJP. Despite massive deletions in my constituency, I will win even if there is one voter left," CM Banerjee said.
Her remarks came after the publication of the final electoral rolls on February 28 following completion of the SIR exercise. The Chief Minister alleged that the deletions were carried out deliberately to influence the outcome of the forthcoming Assembly elections.
“This has been wrongfully done at the behest of the BJP,” she added.
According to post-SIR data released by the Commission, 63.66 lakh names -- around 8.3 per cent of the electorate -- have been deleted, bringing the total number of voters in the state to just over 7.04 crore.
Another 60.06 lakh voters have been placed in the “under adjudication” category and are scheduled to be verified in the coming weeks.
Bhabanipur Assembly constituency had earlier recorded around 44,000 deletions in the draft electoral roll published in December last year. More than 14,000 names in the constituency remain under adjudication.
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