Kolkata, Mar 1 (PTI) Escalating his attack on the Election Commission over the post-SIR rolls in West Bengal, TMC MP and the party’s national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee on Sunday alleged that the “target of deleting over one crore voters was decided even before the exercise began”.
Addressing a press conference a day after the publication of the first phase of post-SIR final rolls, Banerjee claimed that BJP leaders had publicly said that “1.2 crore names” would be removed from the rolls, and he alleged that the cumulative number of deletions and voters kept “under adjudication” now corresponds closely to that figure.
“The target of deleting over one crore voters in West Bengal was decided even before SIR commenced. BJP leaders have repeatedly said 1.2 crore names will be removed. If you add the deletions and those put under adjudication, the number corresponds closely to the figure of 1.2 crore,” he said.
Banerjee spoke about previous remarks made by Leader of the Opposition in the state assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, former BJP state president Sukanta Majumdar and Union minister Shantanu Thakur about large-scale deletions from the rolls.
“Even before the commencement of SIR, these leaders had said that 1 crore to 1.25 crore voters will be deleted. They had fixed a target. The Election Commission is acting accordingly,” he alleged.
He said the BJP is unable to win elections politically, and is, hence, attempting to “influence the poll result by deleting genuine voters by using the Election Commission”.
“However, deleting genuine voters won’t yield any result for the BJP. They will not win more than 50 in the assembly polls,” Banerjee asserted.
The TMC leader said Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will stage a dharna on March 6 against “arbitrary deletions” under SIR.
His remarks came a day after the Election Commission published the post-SIR rolls, marking a sweeping electoral reset barely months before the assembly polls.
According to official data released on Saturday, 63.66 lakh names, around 8.3 per cent of the electorate, have been deleted since the Special Intensive Revision began in November last year, reducing the voter base from 7.66 crore to just over 7.04 crore.
The 116-day statewide exercise — the first intensive revision since 2002 — has also placed over 60.06 lakh electors in the “under adjudication” category, with their eligibility now subject to judicial scrutiny in the coming weeks, a process that could further recalibrate constituency-level equations.
The draft rolls published on December 16 last year had already pared down the electorate from 7.66 crore to 7.08 crore, deleting over 58 lakh names on grounds such as death, migration, duplication and untraceability.
Following hearings and disposal of claims and objections, another 5.46 lakh deletions were recorded through Form-7 applications, taking the total SIR-linked omissions to around 63.66 lakh. PTI PNT ACD
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