‘Dead’ Men Walking: Abhishek Parades 10 Voters to Prove ECI Wrong

In an explosive claim, the West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC supremo alleged the BJP of preparing a fresh list of around 1.36-crore voters for deletion through the EC on the pretext of "logical discrepancies" after delisting more than 50-lakh voters in the SIR exercise.

Making a veiled reference to Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, Mamata Banerjee alleged his “blackmail” by the BJP to execute its plan. She also complained that an Indian Army officer, now serving at the Eastern Command headquarters, Fort William, has been engaged in the SIR while working for the BJP.

Attacking the BJP and the EC over the SIR, the Bengal CM, during a press conference at the state secretariat Nabanna, said, “Earlier, around 54-lakh voters’ names were deleted using AI and without giving them their right to defend themselves. Many of them are genuine and women voters. No one knows whose names were dropped. No one also got that list, as it did not come out.”

The Chief Minister added: “Logical discrepancies did not exist in SIR earlier and any law. This is a brainchild of the slaves. Now a new list of 1.33-1.36-crore voters has been drafted. No party, except the BJP, has it.” She then tacitly alleged that Mr Kumar, his elder daughter Medha Rupam and her husband Manish Bansal, who are IAS officers serving as the district magistrates (DM) at Kasganj and Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh, are colluding with the BJP.

“Is the EC a slave of the BJP or a saviour of democracy? We want him to work as a saviour of democracy instead of his family. We have heard that he is being blackmailed by someone also. Files are moving from one place to another because there are DMs in his family also. This is a game that has been underway. A money game is also on,” Mamata Banerjee alleged.

The CM later said, “A few days ago the Army invited some of you to its office for talks. I see nothing wrong in it. I respect them like all other forces. But I have never seen this in my life. I just got information. A Commandant posted at Fort William is engaged in SIR work. He is also working for the BJP. I request you with folded hands: Please don't do it.”

Further, the Trinamul Congress supremo mocked Prime Minister Narendra Modi's upcoming visit to the state this weekend to inaugurate Central projects, including new train services, ahead of the Assembly elections.

Without taking Modi’s name, Mamata Banerjee said, “Inauguration comes to mind before polls. Post-poll, all funds get stopped. A ring is created to hold back the funds. What are you going to inaugurate? Everything, from Malda to Jalpaiguri and Jalpaiguri to Guwahati, is political. These places are poll-bound. Moreover, these are shuttles which carry no importance."

Accusing the Election Commission of taking away voting rights of citizens through the ongoing exercise at the Cooch Behar rally, the TMC's Diamond Harbour MP Abhijit Banerjee presented 10 more people who were allegedly declared dead in the draft electoral rolls during the SIR in West Bengal.

Calling the 10 people on the stage, he said, "All of them were born and brought up in Cooch Behar, but they were declared dead by the BJP's stooge Election Commission… The names of these 10 people were struck off the electoral rolls in the ongoing SIR," Mr Banerjee alleged.

Earlier this month, Abhijit Banerjee had paraded two men and a woman, allegedly marked as dead voters in the draft electoral rolls, at a rally in the South 24 Parganas district.