- Mamata Banerjee and Trinamool oppose Election Commission's special intensive revision in Bengal
- Congress and Rahul Gandhi criticize SIR, linking it to poll officials' deaths and political harassment
- BJP urges poll officials to follow Election Commission directives and reject politicization of SIR
After the intense battles fought on the plains of Bihar and in the Supreme Court, the special intensive revision (SIR) exercise frontline has moved to West Bengal, where Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her Trinamool Congress has already started opposing the Election Commission's initiative to clean-up the voter rolls.
The Congress, too, is one of the opposition parties that have severely criticised the SIR; some Congress leaders even faulted the SIR for the party's bad show in the Bihar assembly election.
On Sunday, Congress MP Rahul Gandhi led the opposition's battle formation on the SIR in Bengal.
"Under the guise of SIR, chaos has been unleashed across the country - the result? In three weeks, 16 BLOs [booth level officers] have lost their lives. Heart attacks, stress, suicides - SIR is no reform, it's an imposed tyranny," Gandhi said in a post in Hindi on X.
"SIR is a calculated ploy - where citizens are being harassed and the deaths of BLOs from unnecessary pressure are dismissed as collateral damage. This is not a failure, it's a conspiracy - a sacrifice of democracy to protect those in power," Gandhi alleged.
The Opposition had done everything it could to stall or stop the SIR in Bihar, from going to the Supreme Court to mass protests. But it did not have much to say when the Election Commission gave a simple explanation that voter rolls have to be updated from time to time. There is no conspiracy in this, the EC maintains.
Not only Bengal, even states in the northeast that share borders with Myanmar and Bangladesh and have traditionally had issues with illegal immigrants are also getting ready to carry out the SIR.
The Trinamool Congress has scheduled a meeting on Monday to be chaired by general secretary Abhishek Banerjee for discussions on the SIR. Mamata Banerjee has said she will meet members of the Matua community in Bongaon, North 24 Parganas, on Tuesday to educate people about the SIR and to ensure no one gets left out unfairly.
The BJP in Bengal has attacked Mamata Banerjee and her party over their attempt to create a buzz of controversy around the SIR.
Bengal BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari on Sunday asked BLOs in the state to follow the directives of the Election Commission in letter and spirit so that not a single unauthorised voter is included in the draft rolls after the SIR exercise ends.
At a public event in Nandigram, Adhikari referred to a "few BLOs" allegedly showing allegiance to the ruling Trinamool Congress and "trying to do things in favour of one political party".
"Not a single genuine citizen of the state, nor the BLOs or BLAs of political parties including the BJP, are apprehensive about SIR or fear being sent to detention camps as they see through the false narrative of Mamata Banerjee and her men," he said.
Bengal Governor CV Ananda Bose took a more conciliatory approach with an appeal to all parties to let the Election Commission and the state government address the public's concerns over the SIR.
"There are various fears among people about SIR. Incidents like suicide have happened. In this context, the Election Commission and the state government should meet more to allay people's fears about SIR," the Governor said.
Boosted by the huge win in Bihar, the BJP has expressed confidence that the Bihar wave will sweep across Bengal in the assembly election scheduled early next year.
