Chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday kicked off her election campaign in north Bengal with three public meetings where she highlighted the “deletion” of a large number of names from the electoral roll and accused the BJP of trying to divide Bengal.
The Trinamool Congress chairperson claimed that eight lakh voters’ names had been deleted with the publication of the first supplementary electoral roll. The eight lakh are among 27 lakh electors included in the adjudication category on the preliminary “final” list published on February 28.
“It was an ill-planned SIR (special intensive revision) exercise. I have been told that eight lakh names from among 27 lakh voters who were under adjudication have been deleted from the first supplementary list,” the chief minister told a public meeting in Naxalbari in the afternoon.
She demanded that the Election Commission publish the entire list at the earliest.
“So far, hard copies of the (supplementary) list have not been put up in government offices. We can verify the information only after that list is displayed,” Mamata added.
Late on Monday night, the EC published the first supplementary list of 60 lakh-odd names of voters who were put under adjudication.
Mamata alleged that the names of people from different communities had been deleted from the electoral roll.
“They plan to introduce the NRC. We will not allow the NRC in Bengal, and no detention camp would be built in the state,” she added.
The Trinamool chairperson said her party would extend assistance to all those people whose names would be deleted to ensure that they were enrolled as voters.
Earlier in the day, the chief minister addressed two other public meetings at Mainaguri in Jalpaiguri district and Dabgram-Fulbari on the outskirts of Siliguri.
In the speeches there, she accused the BJP of playing divisive politics.
“They (BJP) want to create a separate state by encompassing north Bengal and some districts of Bihar. It is their plan, and we have seen it on social media. We will not let it happen,” said Mamata.
In north Bengal, several organisations and political parties root for a separate state and over the years, they backed either the BJP or Trinamool.
“Ahead of the elections, the chief minister tactically referred to the issue to exert pressure on the BJP, considering the strong sentiment that pervades across the state against further division of Bengal,” said a political observer.
He said the chief minister’s reference to the NRC and detention camps was part of an attempt to consolidate the support base of the minority community.
“New political alliances are formed among parties which claim to work for minorities. Mamata wants to ensure that the minorities do not incline towards these parties as the minority vote bank is one of the key strengths of Trinamool,” he added.
In her speeches, Mamata said if the BJP was voted to power, people would be deprived of the welfare schemes introduced by her government. “We have introduced over 100 schemes for people,
ranging from Laxmir Bhandar to Yuva Sathi. But if they come to power, they will stop all these schemes. These days, they are referring to some schemes, but those are not for everybody,” Mamata said in Mainaguri.
Additional reporting by our Jalpaiguri correspondent