Pan-India SIR sparks political firestorm: Oppn sees plot to 'delete' voters

NEW DELHI: EC's decision to launch a special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls from Nov triggered sharp political reactions across states, with Bengal's Trinamool Congress and Tamil Nadu's DMK alleging a " BJP-backed plot " to delete legitimate voters, while the saffron party hailed it as a "cleansing exercise to weed out illegal ones".

TMC would "democratically protest" any attempt to strike out genuine voters, party spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said Monday. "We have no problem with electoral roll revision, but if anyone tries to delete the name of any eligible voter at BJP's behest, we will protest democratically," he said, urging people not to fall into "BJP's trap".

Bengal minister for women and child development Shashi Panja called the revision "unnecessary and hurried". "If 2024 voter list was correct, why change now? SIR is nothing but a backdoor entry for NRC," she said, adding that "whenever we ask a question to EC, it's BJP that replies".

Bengal BJP welcomed the exercise as essential to purging electoral lists of "illegal voters". State opposition leader Suvendu Adhikari said, "No illegal voters will be spared. Legitimate voters have nothing to fear. But infiltrators who form TMC's vote bank will be weeded out." State BJP chief Samik Bhattacharya added, "If anyone tries to stall the process, custodians of the Constitution will take care of it. CM (Mamata Banerjee) herself had flagged illegal immigration in Parliament in 2004. EC is only cleansing the rolls. Our aim is to detect and delete - deportation will come later."

Bengal Congress president Subhankar Sarkar called the SIR rollout "faulty" and "imposed without consultation". "We presented a detailed memorandum to EC based on our experience with SIR in Bihar, but they did not accept any proposal. The timing too is insensitive, coming amid Chhath and Jagaddhatri Puja," he said.

CPM Bengal secretary M Salim said, "If a single genuine voter's name is deleted, we will oppose. Amit Shah himself said 'detect, delete and deport'. Our workers will stay vigilant."

In Chennai, CM MK Stalin held an emergency meeting with DMK allies soon after EC's announcement and called for an all-party meeting on Nov 2 to devise a joint response. "Right to vote is the foundation of democracy. Tamil Nadu will fight against any attempt to murder it - and Tamil Nadu will win," Stalin wrote on X. He termed the revision "a conspiracy by EC to rob citizens of their rights and help BJP," citing Bihar experience where, he alleged, "large numbers of women, minorities and SC/ST voters were removed from rolls".

Gujarat Congress president Amit Chavda pledged to resist "wrongful deletion of names". "Questions have been raised about independence of EC. Congress will not allow deletion of even a single genuine voter," he said.

(Inputs from Chennai & Gandhinagar)