Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday said Election Commission’s special intensive revision of electoral rolls for Bihar was actually aimed at Bengal, which goes to polls next year.
“Bihar has a BJP government. They (EC) will not act in Bihar. Only three months left before elections are held in Bihar. They will follow what the BJP says,” Mamata said addressing a news conference in Digha.
“Their target is Bengal. The migrant workers and the people of Bengal,” Mamata said. “The chief election commissioner’s plan is dangerous, alarming for democracy.”
Alleging that the ECI was "acting like a stooge of the BJP", Banerjee asked whether the move was a backdoor attempt to implement the NRC.
Addressing reporters in the coastal town of Digha in Purba Medinipur district, where the chief minister is currently stationed to oversee preparations and participate in Friday's Rath Yatra of Lord Jagannath from the newly inaugurated Jagannath temple, Banerjee said she called the press conference in a hurry to address the issue which was a "matter of utmost concern".
"I have received two letters from the ECI, each comprising 25-30 pages. I haven't been able to go through them in detail so far. But from what I have understood from a cursory glance, the Commission is now seeking a declaration form from voters born between July 1, 1987, and December 2, 2004, which is Annexure D in one of the letters, where they will have to submit birth certificates of both parents as proof of citizenship," Banerjee said.
"I don't understand the reason behind the ECI move or the rationale behind selecting these dates. This is nothing short of a scam. I seek clarification from the Commission on whether they are trying to implement the NRC through backdoors. In fact, this looks to be more dangerous than the NRC which every political party in opposition must resist," she added.
In a letter sent to the Chief Electoral Officer of Bihar on June 24, the EC has mandated different levels of document verification on the basis of the Citizenship Act, 1955. The Booth-level Officers will be given pre-filled enumeration forms with additional data to be provided by the voters including documented proof of the parents’ date of birth and place of birth. This is mandatory for those born after July 1 1987.
“The EC cannot do it unilaterally. They must speak with the recognised state and national parties. The EC cannot say that voters’ list would be revised entirely without consulting the political parties which play a key role,” said Mamata, adding that she was speaking on behalf of all political parties who were apprehensive of the move.
In February this year at a party event in Kolkata’s Netaji Indoor stadium, Mamata had flagged the issue of voters from other states having the same photo identity card number as another voter registered in Bengal. The Trinamool Congress had raised the issue with Nirvachan Sadan which had admitted to lapses in the electoral rolls.
“Last time they had included voters from Rajasthan, Haryana, and Punjab. Elected governments and political parties are not bonded labourers. Last month they had asked us to provide details of booth level workers. Why will I reveal their identities? The EC is not supposed to ask for this data,” Mamata said.
The EC’s firman for Bihar has set the alarm bells ringing for an NRC like exercise which could lead to genuine voters losing the right to exercise their votes.
“In terms of its scale and nature, this special intensive revision will be akin to the NRC exercise in Assam. In Assam, it took six year for the government to complete the exercise and even then the Assam government is not ready to accept the NRC as the final list of citizens,” the CPI ML-Liberation general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya wrote in a letter to chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
Bihar will go to polls later this year.
