Kolkata, February 28 – The West Bengal BJP on Saturday claimed that more names would have been removed from the state’s electoral rolls if the Election Commission of India (ECI) had been given full freedom to conduct the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise.
Reacting to the publication of the final voters’ list, state BJP chief spokesperson Debjit Sarkar alleged that the rolls had, over the years, included illegal Bangladeshi and Rohingya immigrants as well as names of deceased persons.
“This was bound to happen as West Bengal’s voters’ list over the years was filled with illegal Bangladeshi and Rohingya Muslims and dead voters. Today, the Election Commission of India has removed such voters from the list,” Sarkar told IANS.
The final voters’ list, published on Saturday as part of the SIR exercise, showed that 61,78,245 names have been deleted so far.
Sarkar further alleged that the ruling Trinamool Congress government had attempted to create hurdles in the SIR process. “Had the Election Commission been given full freedom, more such voters would have been deleted from the list. It was a ploy of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to derail the SIR process and mislead the people,” he said.
According to the Election Commission, the number of deleted voters may increase, as identity documents of around 60 lakh voters are currently under judicial adjudication by officers appointed by the ECI following directions of the Supreme Court.
At a press conference earlier in the day, Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), West Bengal, Manoj Kumar Agarwal, said the total number of “approved” voters in the final list stands at 7,04,59,284.
“When the SIR began in November last year, the total number of voters was 7,66,37,529. The number was reduced to 7,08,16,630. Now, in the final voters’ list, the total number of ‘approved’ voters stands at 7,04,59,284. This means that a total of 61,78,245 voters have already been deleted in the process,” Agarwal said.