Leader of the Opposition in the Bengal Assembly Suvendu Adhikari on Tuesday accused the Trinamool Congress government in the state of “frantically” conducting camps to speed up the issuing of SC, ST and OBC certificates for “undocumented infiltrators and fake claimants”.
The BJP leader shared a purported memo from the block development officer in Kandi, Murshidabad, allegedly referring to three such in-person camps scheduled from 8 to 12 December at panchayat offices.
Adhikari called on the Election Commission to subject all certificates issued after 24 June to rigorous scrutiny. The first phase of the special intensive revision (sir) of electoral rolls exercise in Bihar began on that date.
“Why the sudden panic? Because the Election Commission of India's Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise is about to expose their voter fraud racket! The desperation is obvious because a large chunk of Mamata Banerjee's ‘vote bank’ is unable to link their names to the authentic 2002 Voter List, are staring down exclusion from the draft electoral rolls,” Adhikari alleged in a post on X.
“It's a blatant bid to arm ineligible voters with 'certificates' that slyly match the ECI's list of 13 documents for hearings after the publication of draft electoral rolls. An attempt to make a mockery of democracy, by flooding the system with bogus SC/ST/OBC creds,” he claimed.
Adhikari alleged that such efforts would deprive genuinely marginalised communities of their due rights. “Real SCs, STs, and OBCs will watch their benefits evaporate as ineligible people will swarm in, staking unethical claims,” he said.
The BJP leader again pressed the Election Commission to undertake thorough checks for each certificate and verify whether the individuals belong to communities officially recognised by the Centre as SC, ST or OBC.
“The WB Govt has the habit of issuing OBC Certificates (mostly religion based) to ineligible people which have been struck down by the Hon’ble Courts. Let the SIR purge the electoral rolls clean, and let Democracy prevail,” he added.
