Mamata Banerjee Livid After Trinamool Mouthpiece Reports She Filled SIR Form

Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, known to be a vocal opponent of the Special Intensive Revision of voter list, was left red-faced after her party mouthpiece Jago Bangla reported and a few other publications reported that she has personally received the voter enumeration form. In a Facebook post, the Chief Minister issued a flat denial, saying she would not do any such thing till every voter in the state has been registered. 

The BJP, which is having a field day with the episode, has questioned whether the Chief Minister was lying or it is her party mouthpiece.

On Thursday, Jago Bangla reported on its front page that an official of the Election Commission distributing enumeration forms had gone to the Chief Minister's residence. Mamata Banerjee had personally received the forms and assured him that she would fill and return them, said the report, which was promptly picked up by other news platforms. 

Today, the Chief Minister denied it in a Facebook post. 

"Yesterday the responsible BLO came to our school to do his assigned work. In the process, they came to my residence office and identified some voters of the residence and gave the form," her post read. 

"Unless every person in Bengal is filling the form, I cannot and will not fill any form myself," the post read. 

Then, without naming the party mouthpiece, she added: "Various media and newspapers published that, 'I came out of the residence and held BLO-R in my hand. Received the enumeration form from you! This news is completely false, misleading and purposefully propagated."

The report appeared a day after the Trinamool chief held a massive rally in Kolkata against the Special Intensive Revision of voter list, rolled out by the Election Commission on November 4. The ruling Trinamool Congress along with the rest of the Opposition, contends that SIR is just a means to disenfranchise their supporters and ensure a mandate for the BJP.

With a decisive assembly election due in Bengal, where the BJP is steadily making inroads, the Trinamool today called SIR a "silent, invisible rigging". 

At Tuesday's rally, Banerjee had railed at the BJP, accusing it of targeting anyone who spoke in Bengali.

"Whoever is talking in Bangla is branded as Bangladeshi. These people have not fought the fight for freedom... where was BJP at that time? That is why they don't know that India, Bangladesh and Pakistan were part of the same land before Independence," she had said.

The BJP has sharply criticised the Chief Minister over her Facebook post.

"Who is telling lies? Is it the Trinamool mouthpiece or Mamata? She wanted to say that until the names of Rohingyas, Bangladeshis and Pakistanis are included in the voter list, she would not fill SIR," said BJP MLA Agnimitra Paul.

The BJP claims that Mamata Banerjee's government has issued "backdated" and "forged" documents on a large scale. It has asked the Election Commission to exercise great caution while determining Indian citizens in the state and even provided a list of documents that, they suggested, be taken with a pinch of salt.

The list included Birth Certificates, Permanent Residence Certificates, Forest Rights Certificates, Caste Certificates, Family Registers and Land and House Allotment Certificates.

It also suggested that the poll commission seek some extra documents from the residents of the state.