SIR row: Mamata claims names of people belonging to ‘specific communities’ deleted from voter rolls | India News
New Delhi: West Bengal Chief Minister O Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Mamata Banerjee accused the authorities of selectively erasing names from the state’s voter list following the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise ahead of the upcoming assembly elections on Tuesday.Addressing a rally at Chakda in Nadia district, Mamata said the TMC would support those whose names were removed from the electoral register after the latest amendment process. According to the Election Commission, around 91 lakh voters in West Bengal have been deleted from the electoral rolls as part of the post-SIR update, news agency PTI reported.The Chief Minister claimed that a large number of names have been reinstated after his intervention in the Supreme Court. “After his intervention in the Supreme Court, about 32 lakh names out of about 60 lakh cases under ‘judgment’ have been restored,” he said, indicating that almost half of the disputed entries have been returned to the rolls after legal action.The chief minister also alleged that “names targeting specific communities are being deleted from government records,” suggesting that the deletions are not random but target specific groups.The West Bengal Assembly elections are scheduled in two phases, with voting on April 23 and April 29 and counting on May 4.
