Will expose BJP-poll panel conspiracy to disenfranchise Bengali voters: Mamata

KOLKATA, Mar 7: West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday said that she would "expose the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) - Election Commission (EC) conspiracy to disenfranchise Bengali voters", as she launched a dharna outside Kolkata's Esplanade metro station to protest the alleged arbitrary deletion of several million people during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.

"I will expose the BJP-EC conspiracy to disenfranchise Bengali voters," she said in her speech.

"I will present those voters, who have been declared dead by the EC, at this protest site."

During the dharna, Trinamool Congress (TMC) national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee exhorted voters to "boycott"?the BJP in the upcoming state assembly polls.

"Boycott BJP. You may have reasons not to like TMC but Bengalis with the minimum sense of honour should not vote for BJP unless they don't want something bad to happen to Bengal. I predicted earlier that BJP will not get more than 50 (of 294) seats. After what has happened in the name of SIR, their tally should not cross 40," he said.

"In the 2024 Lok Sabha polls we said 'No vote to BJP'. Now we are saying 'Boycott BJP'. Boycott them socially," he added.
On February 28, the EC published the first part of the final electoral roll for West Bengal, dropping 6.18 million names and keeping 70.46 million voters in the list after the SIR.

To be sure, another six million people were flagged under a controversial "logical discrepancy" category and their final status is currently being adjudicated by around 500 serving and former judicial officers.

The BJP hit back at Banerjee over the sit-in protest, saying she is holding such a demonstration to protect infiltrators.

"Banerjee is only interested in saving the infiltrators belonging to the Muslim community, which constitutes the bulk of her vote bank. She should be ashamed that she is holding a sit-in protest to save infiltrators, with whose help she managed to win the previous elections. But not any more," said Union minister and BJP?leader Giriraj Singh.    �"HT