The TMC on Tuesday asked the Election Commission of India to use 2024 as the base year for the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls set to be held in Bengal ahead of the 2026 Assembly election.
“They (the EC) mentioned 2003 (as base year). The general election took place in 2024, so why don’t you consider that as the base level? Why are you taking 2003? What about those enrolled between 2003 and 2024? How can their names be deleted? They said they would consider making 2024 the base year,” said TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee in New Delhi after a “courtesy meeting” with the EC.
The five-member delegation sent by Mamata Banerjee also demanded that document-based enumeration of those enrolled as voters — ongoing in poll-bound Bihar under the SIR — be stopped.
The delegation comprising Kalyan, minister and Calcutta mayor Firhad Hakim, ministers Chandrima Bhattacharya and Aroop Biswas, and Rajya Sabha member Prakash Chik Baraik met the EC top brass to flag the Bengal chief minister’s concerns.
“Our party and our supreme leader believe in the EC and the Supreme Court…. We believe the EC will be unbiased,” said Hakim later.
Last week, Mamata said at a news conference that she smelt a rat in the EC’s June 24 SIR directives for Bihar. She alleged the Bihar revision was an excuse to replicate the processes in Bengal in a bid to manipulate her state’s mandate next summer. The TMC chief also wondered if efforts were underway for a backdoor entry for the citizenship matrix of the Narendra Modi government.
On Monday, the EC clarified that the 2003 electoral roll in Bihar would be valid proof for voters and their parents. It was the second clarification issued by the poll panel amid fears expressed by the Opposition that the SIR in Bihar might lead to large-scale disenfranchisement. The first clarification, issued on Saturday, said only those whose names are not on the rolls of 2003 — the last time the Bihar rolls underwent a special intensive revision — would need to provide documentation. The 2003 rolls had 4.96 crore names, the current rolls have 7.9 crore.
On Tuesday, the EC issued a media release on the meeting with the TMC delegation — the first in the series of interactions with state parties after chief election commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar took over the poll panel in February.
The EC also released a standalone quote from the CEC that did not mention the meeting, saying: “As per the Representation of the People Act, you are entitled to vote only in the Assembly constituency where you are an ordinary resident. For example, if you ordinarily reside in Delhi but own a house in Patna, your vote should be registered in Delhi, not in Patna.”
Both Bihar and Bengal have a large migrant worker population, a section of whom poll officials believe are voting in more than one place. Based on the Bihar experience, the EC is expected to implement the SIR in other states as well.
“The EC stated that their SIR motive is that no voter be left behind, but based on some recent circulars, their approach seems to be eligibility first, inclusion later,” said Kalyan.
“We pointed out that although they are talking about revision, it is causing confusion. Under the statute, the revision roll should be based on 2024.... This means that voters enrolled till 2024 should remain, irrespective of any condition,” he said.
Journalists were kept away from the Nirvachan Sadan gates by police, preventing the delegation from speaking to the media there. Kalyan and Hakim spoke to journalists in Bengali and Hindi, respectively, around 50 metres from the gates.
The TMC has likened the SIR — which is a veritable citizenship test that mandates the collection of birth place proofs of parents of voters born after 1987 — to “Ancestor Passes” issued by the Nazi regime. Mamata last Thursday alluded to CEC Kumar’s previous tenure in the Union home ministry, saying: “Modiji is the Prime Minister, I respect the chair. But the EC is linked to Amit Shah. He is running the country.... I am here to expose their plan….”
“I request other (non-BJP-ruled) states to bowl. We have already started batting,” she had added.
The EC included a large number of voters in the list before the Assembly polls in Maharashtra, Haryana and Delhi (all won by the BJP) to which Opposition parties such as the Congress, the AAP, and Shiv Sena-UBT objected, as had Mamata.
Kalyan asked the EC to ensure this does not happen in Bengal. “We said we have no objection to the inclusion of new voters aged between 18 and 21. But how can a large number of names of people aged 50-60 suddenly be included?” he asked.
The delegation also raised the issue of voter turnout data being released inordinately late, and central forces allegedly influencing voters.
Curb-governor plea
Trinamool also demanded that the commission restrict the movement of governor C.V. Ananda Bose from the time elections are notified for Bengal. “During elections, the governor frequently travels to areas where the BJP has a stronghold.... A rule should be framed so that the governor cannot engage in such activities,” Hakim said.