INDIA bloc members will take part in a rally on 11 August to protest against the arbitrary deletion of the voters in the name of Special Intensive Revision (SIR), Abhishek Banerjee, Trinamul Congress national general secretary, said today.
Talking to newsmen outside the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport this afternoon he said the rally will start from Parliament House and end at the Election Commission of India (ECI). A delegation of the INDIA bloc will meet the Chief Election Commissioner.
He alleged that in the name of SIR, names of poor people will be deleted. “We are not going to tolerate this. The ECI has become an office of the BJP where the officials say ‘Yes SIR’ but we say No Sir. If the name of a genuine voter is deleted in Bengal then one lakh people will gherao the ECI office in New Delhi.”
Mr Banerjee said: “If the voters are not genuine, then the Prime Minister, home minister, external affairs minister were elected by the fake voters. The ECI suddenly became active and felt that there are illegal voters in the country. They did not exercise in Bihar and their target was Bengal. The BJP has understood that without manipulating the voters list, they cannot help the BJP in Bengal. The ECI is playing with fire and will have to pay a very heavy price for it,” he said adding, “BJP lost in every election since 2014 and be rest assured, Trinamul Congress will get more seats in 2026.”
He had urged the Speaker to allow a discussion on SIR. “The BJP-led Centre wants to hide something and hence does not want any discussion on SIR. We want to run the House smoothly but it is the BJP that want not to run it smoothly.”
We have already done this during the MGNREGA protests. Despite a court order, they still haven’t released the MGNREGA funds; this is contempt of court. Our delegation will meet Shivraj Singh Chouhan. They have also blocked Jal Jeevan Mission funds. Our party delegation will meet the Jal Shakti minister, said Abhishek.
Mr Banerjee categorically said Trinamul Congress will give support to those parties that will raise their voice against the attack and harassment of Bengali-speaking workers in the BJP-ruled states. “We have no ego. Any one supporting the cause of Bengal will receive our support. This kind of deprivation cannot continue. Bengal is our priority. On the issue of Bengal’s deprivation, whichever party supports Bengal, we will stand by them,” Mr Banerjee maintained.