A 28-year-old man in West Bengal's Howrah district died by suicide allegedly due to fears over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the voters' list, which kicked off across the state on Wednesday.
According to the man's family, the daily wage worker from Uluberia, Jahir Mal, took his life at his residence on Tuesday. The incident took place on a day when Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee hit the streets in Kolkata to protest the electoral roll revision.
"He killed himself because of SIR. He used to tell us that they will deport him to Bangladesh. He was told that he has documents and there would be no problem but he was scared. He used to say that it's better to sacrifice my life," Mal's wife Regina Bibi said.
"I want the SIR exercise to be stopped. People are committing suicides because of it. People are in fear because of it. I have lost my husband. What will my three children do now?" she added.
According to the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC), seven people have so far died by suicide in the state due to fears over the electoral roll revision.
Trinamool sources said a delegation was sent to Mal's house on the directions of party general secretary Abhishek Banerjee. State Minister for Public Works and Public Health Engineering Department Pulak Roy also met the family on Tuesday.
After the protest march in Kolkata on Tuesday, Mamata alleged "silent, invisible rigging" through the Election Commission (EC)'s exercise. "If a single eligible voter is removed from the electoral rolls, we will ensure the fall of this BJP government," the Chief Minister declared to thunderous applause from her supporters.
The electoral roll cleanup exercise is also being opposed by the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and its allies in Tamil Nadu which approached the Supreme Court on Monday on the issue.
Abhishek alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led central government was using SIR in Bengal to "intimidate and disenfranchise" voters, and warned of a massive protest in New Delhi.
While the BJP has welcomed the SIR as a step towards ensuring greater transparency in the electoral rolls, the Trinamool has questioned its timing and intent. Trinamool leader Derek O'Brien termed the SIR exercise a "con job organised by the Extremely Compromised body".
Leader of Opposition in West Bengal Assembly Suvendu Adhikari also led a BJP rally on the outskirts of Kolkata on Tuesday, demanding that SIR be fully undertaken and every Bangladeshi infiltrator be deported from the country.
BJP Rajya Sabha MP and state party chief Samik Bhattacheya accused the Trinamool of scripting false stories related to the SIR. "To divert attention, the ruling party is creating poor scripts in many places to stop SIR. But the people of Bengal have realised that the Trinamool is the outgoing government now," he said.
(With inputs from stringer Baidyanath Jha)
