Naxalbari

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday alleged that nearly eight lakh names have been removed from the first supplementary voter list prepared under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise in the state.

Speaking at an election rally in Naxalbari, she criticised the Bharatiya Janata Party, accusing it of causing hardship to citizens through what she described as a poorly planned revision process.

Banerjee said the deletions were made from a pool of around 27 lakh voters whose eligibility had been examined. However, she questioned the transparency of the process, noting that while the list had been uploaded online, physical copies had not been made available for public verification.

“How can we verify the claims without access to the list at government offices?” she asked, urging authorities to display hard copies immediately.

According to her, the lack of accessible records raises concerns about the accuracy of the exercise. She said she would be able to confirm the figures only after reviewing the officially displayed documents.

The Election Commission of India had released the first supplementary list late Monday night, but has not yet formally confirmed the total number of voters reviewed or the exact number of deletions.

Banerjee also alleged that the process had inconvenienced many, particularly elderly citizens, who were made to stand in long queues and face scrutiny over their citizenship.

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Reiterating her stance, she asserted that no National Register of Citizens (NRC) exercise would be implemented in West Bengal and that detention centres would not be allowed in the state as long as her government remains in power.