The Trinamool Congress alleged on Saturday that the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision for the Bihar election is a ploy to surreptitiously introduce NRC. The Trinamool claimed that INDIA bloc parties will fight against the EC and the BJP government on this issue.
Linking the EC’s exercise for the Bihar election with the upcoming West Bengal election, Derek O’Brien questioned the timing of the EC’s revision.
“Why is this exercise being done now? We have evidence explaining why it is being done now. It is because the BJP’s latest internal survey for Bengal shows 46-49 seats for them if Assembly polls are held. In their desperation to change or attempt to change this, they are doing this. Where did we get this figure from? The AITC National General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee mentioned this number during his speech in Diamond Harbour a few days ago. That is where the number came from,” O’Brien said.
He pointed out that West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee was the first person to raise the EPIC issue and claimed that in Parliament, INDIA group sought an appointment with EC, but were not given one.
Calling the SIR as a “backdoor entry for NRC”, O’Brien added, “It is a sinister move! In 1935 under the Nazis, people were supposed to provide an ancestor pass, a proof of paper. Is this the new version of the Nazi ancestor pass? Where do we go from here?”
{{/usCountry}}Calling the SIR as a “backdoor entry for NRC”, O’Brien added, “It is a sinister move! In 1935 under the Nazis, people were supposed to provide an ancestor pass, a proof of paper. Is this the new version of the Nazi ancestor pass? Where do we go from here?”
{{/usCountry}}Trinamool’s Rajya Sabha MP Sagarika Ghose called the EC’s revision of voter list as an “important issue for democracy and transparent elections.”
“The BJP has a habit of misusing central agencies to target the Opposition. We are seeing this again, that through the ECI, the BJP is targeting the Opposition. Our Chairperson and CM Mamata Banerjee had raised this issue. On June 26, the ECI announced Special Intensive Revision (SIR) will be conducted for Bihar Assembly polls, but the real target is Bengal.”
AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi also targeted the EC. “The Election Commission is conducting NRC in Bihar through the backdoor. To be enrolled in the voter roll, every citizen will now have to show documents not only proving when and where they were born, but also when and where their parents were born. Even the best estimates state that only three-fourths of births are registered. Most government documents are riddled with errors. People in the flood-prone Seemanchal region are among the poorest; they can barely afford two meals a day. To expect them to possess their parents’ documents is a cruel joke...,” he posted on X.