Kolkata, March 21 (IANS) Addressing a gathering on the occasion of the Eid festival on Saturday morning, the West Bengal Chief Minister criticised the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in the state and also launched a scathing attack against Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, claiming that the latter was the principal mastermind behind the revision exercise.
“I will never allow either the BJP or the Prime Minister to snatch away your voting rights. He often describes certain people as infiltrators. He is the biggest infiltrator. Why does he forget about the Hindu-Muslim issues when he shakes hands while visiting Saudi Arabia or offers hugs while visiting Dubai? But whenever he is back in the country, he thinks of deleting names of certain people from the voters list,” Chief Minister Banerjee said while addressing a gathering on the occasion of Eid at Red Road in Central Kolkata on Saturday morning.
She said that several names have been deleted in West Bengal through the revision exercises. “My battle against this menace is on. I have taken it up to the Supreme Court to fight against this rampant deletion of names. My battle against this rampant deletion of names from the voters’ list will continue,” she said.
Her comments come amid the Election Commission of India (ECI) announcement on Saturday night that the first supplementary list of cases referred for judicial adjudication after being categorised as “logical discrepancy” cases will be published on March 23.
As per a figure from the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), West Bengal, around 34 per cent of the names whose judicial adjudication process has been completed have been found excludable by the judicial officers. However, they will have the right to approach any of the 19 Appellate Tribunals constituted for the purpose.
“Those who are targeting West Bengal and trying to divide people should go to hell. Always remember that West Bengal has a long tradition of communal harmony. All attempts to polarise people in the name of religion will be resisted at any cost,” the Chief Minister said on Saturday morning.
While delivering his short message at the same gathering, Trinamool Congress general secretary and the party’s Lok Sabha member, Abhishek Banerjee, also stressed the need for maintaining communal harmony in West Bengal.
“Everyone must unite for humanity. May the harmony of Bengal remain intact,” Banerjee said, avoiding political comments on the occasion.
–IANS
src/rad