Abhishek Banerjee on Saturday dared the Election Commission to publish the list of "1.36 crore voters" found to have “logical discrepancies” in their enumeration forms, or apologise to the people of Bengal for floating such an “unofficial” narrative.
“A number of voters with a ‘logical discrepancy’ was circulated by the commission via WhatsApp, without any official release. It claimed that there are 1.36 crore such voters. Where is the list? I ask the Election Commission to publish the list; otherwise, apologise before the people of Bengal,” said the Trinamool Congress national general secretary and Diamond Harbour MP during a news conference on Saturday afternoon.
Abhishek told reporters that he would meet chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar in New Delhi on December 31 and submit his party's grievances against the special intensive revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls in Bengal.
“We will give a timeline to the commission at that meeting in Delhi on December 31. If they do not come up with the list of voters with logical discrepancies or apologise, we will gherao their office,” he said.
“The list of voters with logical discrepancies appeared on the same day the draft electoral roll was published, on December 16. What kind of magic wand does the EC possess? After deploying 80,000 BLOs, 8,000 BLO supervisors, 4,000 AEROs, 300 EROs and 23 DEOs, the work took two months. How then did the EC analyse data for seven crore voters and release this discrepancy list on the very same day? Where is this list? If the intention is to clean the rolls, why is the list (of names with logical discrepancies) being hidden?” Abhishek asked.
Soon after the draft electoral roll was published, the Election Commission flagged 1.67 crore voters, citing logical discrepancies such as cases where the age difference between an elector (mapped with 2002 electoral roll as progeny) and father was less than 15 years. In some instances, voters mapped to the 2002 roll had an age gap of 50 years with their parents. Many individuals mapped with the 2002 electoral roll also had discrepancies in the names and titles of their fathers or grandfathers.
However, such discrepancies have been reducing, poll panel sources said. Abhishek spoke of 1.36 crore voters on Saturday. A poll source, on the same day, told this correspondent that the number stood at 1.18 crore.
Abhishek questioned why the EC did not issue showcause notices to those who claimed one crore Rohingyas were present in Bengal’s electoral roll. He also accused the EC of attempting to help the BJP win elections by deleting the names of bona fide voters.
A senior Election Commission official said the number of voters with logical discrepancies has now come down to 1.18 crore, as the poll body has been trying to resolve minor issues through booth-level officers (BLOs) by collecting documents from voters.
“It is not that everyone with logical discrepancies will be summoned. Our BLOs have been assigned to resolve the issues on the ground. We are calling only those whose issues cannot be resolved by the BLOs,” the official said.
He said there was "no question of publishing the list of those with logical discrepancies".
"It is an ongoing process and all voters will get the opportunity to clear doubts. The names of those who fail to satisfy the EC with documents during the hearing will be removed. Everything will be clear after the final roll is published on February 14,” the official said.
Abhishek flagged data from various states where SIR has been conducted by the Election Commission, claiming that despite Bengal having the lowest deletion rate in the draft roll compared to Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Chhattisgarh, teams of central micro-observers were sent only to Bengal.
“If Bengal has the lowest deletion rate while Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat have the highest, why were micro-observer teams not sent to those states? The law cannot be different for people living in Bengal. Why are laws being altered here through notifications? Why were the same notifications not issued in Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh? Why were micro-observers not sent there?” Abhishek asked.
A Trinamool source said that Abhishek, scheduled to start visiting districts to campaign on SIR and other issues from January 2, would extensively elaborate on how the BJP, allegedly working in tandem with the EC, has been trying to snatch the right to vote. During his campaign, SIR will be one of the major issues, alongside the alleged central deprivation of Bengal. Abhishek will start his campaign from South 24-Parganas and keep visiting districts till January 27.
