Mamata Alleges Voters of Particular Communities Deleted in SIR in Bengal, Venugopal Alleges CPM’s “Secret Deal” with BJP in Kerala
Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Apr 7: The West Bengal Chief Minister and the Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief Mamata Banerjee has alleged that names of people belonging to specific communities, mainly Matua minority communities were deliberately deleted from the post-SIR voter rolls in the State.
Addressing a rally at Chakdaha in Nadia district, Ms Banerjee said the TMC would stand by those whose names were excluded from the voter rolls, following the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise.
According to latest Election Commission data, nearly 91 lakh voters have been deleted from the electoral rolls in West Bengal after the SIR process. Ms Banerjee claimed that following her intervention in the Supreme Court, around 32 lakh names out of nearly 60 lakh cases under ‘adjudication’ had been restored. “Names were being removed from official records by targeting specific communities,” the CM alleged.
Ahead of polls to five Assemblies this month, Election Commission (EC) officials on Tuesday reminded of an instruction that allows a returning officer to recommend a re-poll at a polling station where webcasting is found to be deliberately interrupted.
The EC officials were responding to a question on the possibility of disruptions at polling stations by political workers and ways to deal with such instances. The officials said if a returning officer was convinced of a mala-fide intent in webcasting going off air at a polling station, he can explain the circumstances to the election authority while recommending a re-poll under the “adjourned poll” instruction.
Meanwhile, the Congress general secretary K C Venugopal on Tuesday wrote an open letter to Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan, raising a string of allegations and questions over the LDF government’s functioning, on the day public campaigning is to end ahead of the April 9 Assembly polls.
In the letter, Venugopal said as Kerala stands at the threshold of another election, several questions remain in the minds of the people regarding Vijayan’s 10-year tenure, and sought answers to what he described as the “most discussed” issues in the state.
He raised 10 questions to the Chief Minister, alleging “secret deals” with leaders of the BJP and the Centre on several issues. Among the key concerns flagged were CM Vijayan’s meeting with Union Home Minister Amit Shah at his residence in New Delhi without officials present, as well as a breakfast meeting hosted for Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman at Kerala House, with questions raised over the purpose and agenda of these interactions.
The letter also referred to the gold smuggling and dollar smuggling cases involving a former principal secretary to the Chief Minister, alleging that central agencies had halted the probe midway. It further sought an update on the Justice V K Mohanan Commission set up by the state government to investigate the matter.
“Despite open opposition from CPI and its ministers, why did you go ahead and reach an understanding with the BJP to implement the PM SHRI scheme in Kerala? What “deal” was behind this? Whose interests were you protecting by insisting on implementing it while keeping your own coalition partners in the dark? Why was the CPI state leadership misled after reaching a secret understanding with the BJP?” he asked.
