Mamata Starts Stir Against SIR With 22 ‘Dead’ Voters

Referring to a group present at the venue, the Trinamul Congress supremo said that 22 voters who were recently declared dead by the Election Commission of India had appeared at the protest to show that they were alive.

“They have been declared dead in the SIR, but they are sitting here. Look at them. They are showing that they are alive and doing well. I wish them a good life ahead. We collect information inch by inch. The BJP is shameless and arrogant, and the EC is its agent,” she said.

She added that family members of eight persons who died during the SIR process and had visited New Delhi would also join the protest.

Her nephew and MP Abhishek Banerjee, several state ministers and party leaders, including parliamentarians and MLAs, attended the first day of the agitation.

Banerjee also criticised the BJP, alleging that it was trying to influence the upcoming Assembly elections with the help of the Election Commission.

Among others present were TMC Rajya Sabha candidate Menaka Guruswamy, former Jadavpur MP Kabir Suman and poet Joy Goswami. An elderly monk who identified himself as the president of the Ramakrishna Sarada Mission at Minakhan in North 24 Parganas district told the gathering that his name had also been removed from the voter list despite being registered since 2002.

The protest saw a counter demonstration by a group of para teachers demanding a salary hike. Banerjee asked them to hold their protest elsewhere, saying, “This is not a place to hold another demonstration. Please don't play politics over anything here on behalf of BJP. Show it to the Prime Minister, Union home minister.” Police later dispersed the demonstrators.

The protest coincided with a statement by Manoj Agarwal, chief electoral officer of West Bengal, who said only around seven lakh names out of the 60.06 lakh voters under adjudication for discrepancies had been resolved in the past week.

Meanwhile, the Trinamul Congress formed a three-member delegation comprising Rajya Sabha MP Samirul Islam, Krishnanagar MP Mahua Moitra and state minister Chandrima Bhattacharya to meet the full bench of the Election Commission led by chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar during their visit to the state on March 8-9.