"40,000 Voters Deleted In My Constituency": Mamata Banerjee Attacks Poll Body

Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's allegations against the voter roll revision has grown sharper as elections in the state draw closer. This time, she has accused the Election Commission of deleting the names of voters willy-nilly, alleging that 40,000 names have been deleted in her constituency alone without a hearing.

"In my constituency they have deleted 40,000 voters' names unilaterally... That so called Seema Khanna, who has a BJP mindset, is deleting names while sitting in EC office... Even a murderer gets a chance to defend himself," she said.

"Seema Khanna's agency did it. They cannot do it, it is illegal. 58 lakh names have been unilaterally deleted," she added, echoing nephew Abhishek Banerjee. Accusing the BJP of appointing "micro-observers" illegally, she said "They don't have any position in the RP Act and they are BJP people who have been appointed through the back door".

Then in a dramatic fashion, she called for those who have been shown as dead in the lists to raise their hands. "See, they are alive but as per Election Commission they are dead," she added.

Alleging that the Commission is deleting names in the name of "logical discrepancy, she said even Nobel laureate Amartya Sen was summoned over the age of his mother. 

"I challenge them to fight us politically and democratically. Our organisation is strong, we know what is going on," she said. 

Questioning the motivation of the exercise again, she said, "I have no problem with SIR, but why do it on the eve of elections. Why not after elections?"