Kolkata, March 27 On a day the Election Commission is scheduled to publish the second supplementary list of voters in connection with the SIR exercise in West Bengal, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee lashed out at the poll panel and the BJP for "not making the complete and final first supplementary list available to the public".
Calling the non-availability of the list a "murder of democracy", Banerjee warned that "people will soon seek answers to such arbitrary use of power".
"God's own mill grinds slowly, but surely. I say this on the day of Ram Navami," the Chief Minister told reporters at the Kolkata airport on Friday, implying people's retribution against the voter verification exercise.
The first supplementary list of 'under adjudication' names was published online on March 23 without officially stating the number of deletions and inclusions.
Top sources in the poll body, however, have claimed that around 40 per cent of the 32 lakh voters scrutinised by judicial officers so far have been removed from the rolls. Converting this into actual figures, it means around 13 lakh additional voters have been deleted in the supplementary list, bringing the total deletion figure to around 76 lakh and counting.
Considering that the SIR exercise began with over 7.6 crore voters in Bengal, about 10 per cent of voters have already been deleted, bringing that number to around 6.8 crore at the present stage.
"What is happening now will far surpass (the actions of) super Hitlers. The entire exercise has become a vanishing washing machine of the BJP. They are erasing democracy and people's rights. I feel hatred towards them and am ashamed. They have retained one member and removed four others from the same family. They have deleted lakhs of names belonging to a particular community. Does the BJP consider itself the 'landlords' of this country?" Banerjee said.
Referring to the Supreme Court order on supplementary rolls, Banerjee "challenged" the commission to publish the first supplementary list in full.
"We have not yet received the first supplementary list. It is still not available to the public. There cannot be a greater murder of democracy than this. When were the rolls supposed to be published? When did the Supreme Court pass judgment? The last list was published on February 28. Then the adjudications began and I have heard that they deleted nearly 50 per cent of voters from that list," she said.
The Chief Minister alleged that people were being selected and removed from the rolls.
"I have heard that in one of the blocks in Suti (in Murshidabad district), the names of some 400 out of the 500 people in a particular booth were deleted. There are many such examples. In a block in Basirhat, 400 out of 600 voters in a booth were removed," she claimed.
"Who did these things? People will ask for answers in the future. Let people know who is included in the rolls and who isn't. Allow those who are omitted to approach the tribunals in their respective districts and get themselves enrolled. We will support them by providing free legal assistance. But no one has the right to take away the democratic rights of citizens," she added.
Accusing the poll body of "wanting to hold elections by taking away people's voting rights", Banerjee questioned whether the BJP was "running a washing machine by putting a 'Vanish Kumar' as its front".