- Voter Eviction Protest over Special Electoral Roll Amendment sparks political debate
- Election Commission removes 63.66 lakh names from West Bengal voter list
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee staged a sit in protest over alleged voter eviction linked to the Special Electoral Roll Amendment. She held the dharna on Friday afternoon at the Metro Channel in the Esplanade area of Kolkata. The protest has gained political attention as the state prepares for assembly elections in April.
The protest took place at the Metro Channel in the well known Esplanade area. Meanwhile, the issue revolves around the Special Electoral Roll Amendment process. Mamata Banerjee said the revision process has wrongly removed names of many voters. Therefore, she decided to stage a public protest against what she described as large scale voter deletion.
Speaking during the dharna, Mamata Banerjee accused the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Election Commission of India of conspiring to remove Bengali voters from the rolls. She said, “I will expose this conspiracy soon. Many people were wrongly declared dead in the revised list. But they are all alive. I will bring them all on stage and expose all those irregularities,” Mamata said.
Voter Eviction Protest and allegations of irregularities
During the protest, Mamata Banerjee also alleged that the BJP and the Election Commission, along with their agents, crossed limits during the voter revision process. She said she would continue the dharna and provide more details about the issue on Saturday. However, she did not clarify how long the protest would continue.
The political significance of the protest has grown because the state will hold assembly elections soon. Therefore, observers say the voter list issue could become a major campaign topic. The move also signals that the ruling All India Trinamool Congress may highlight the controversy during the election campaign.
Election Commission data on voter list revision
Meanwhile, the Election Commission released the final voter list on February 22. According to the data, the Commission removed 63.66 lakh names from the voter rolls. This accounts for about 8.3 percent of the total voters in the state.
As a result, the number of voters in West Bengal dropped from about 7.66 crore to around 7.04 crore. In addition, authorities placed another 60.06 lakh names under judicial scrutiny. Judicial authorities will examine these entries and later make a final decision.
However, the Trinamool Congress has alleged that the process is politically motivated. The party claimed the revision could affect more than 1.2 crore voters. Meanwhile, the Election Commission has rejected these allegations.
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