Mamata Banerjee Vows Victory in Bhabanipur Amid Electoral Roll Deletions
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Kolkata, March 2 (NationPress) West Bengal's Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee, expressed her discontent on Monday regarding the Election Commission's actions after the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise, which resulted in the removal of names from the final electoral rolls in the state. She confidently declared her intention to secure victory in the Bhabanipur Assembly constituency "even if only one voter remains."
During a Holi celebration at the Netaji Indoor Stadium, Banerjee alleged a collusion between the Election Commission and the BJP, claiming they conspired to eliminate the names of legitimate voters in West Bengal. She criticized both the electoral body and the BJP for undermining the democratic rights of the state's citizens.
"The Election Commission has intentionally removed genuine voters. I am appalled. This is an unfortunate and cruel situation. Many voters' names have been deleted in my Bhabanipur constituency. This is a conspiracy orchestrated by the Election Commission in collaboration with the BJP. Despite the significant removals in my constituency, I will triumph even if just one voter is left," stated CM Banerjee.
Her comments followed the release of the final electoral rolls on February 28, after completing the SIR process. The Chief Minister accused the deletions of being a strategic move to sway the results of the upcoming Assembly elections.
“This has been done improperly at the behest of the BJP,” she added.
Post-SIR data from the Commission indicates that approximately 63.66 lakh names—around 8.3% of the electorate—have been eliminated, reducing the total number of voters in the state to just over 7.04 crore.
Moreover, an additional 60.06 lakh voters are categorized as "under adjudication" and are set to be verified in the upcoming weeks.
The Bhabanipur Assembly constituency had previously seen around 44,000 deletions in the draft electoral roll published last December, with more than 14,000 names still under adjudication.