West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
Credit: PTI Photo
Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee continued her tirade against the Election Commission even on the National Voters’ Day, accusing the poll panel of acting at the behest of the Bharatiya Janata Party of bulldozing the opposition and destroying the foundation of the country's democracy.
“On behalf of BJP, their Master, they are busy in bulldozing the opposition and destroying the foundation of Indian democracy, and yet they have the guts to celebrate Voters' Day!!” she wrote on X, accusing the EC of functioning as “His Master’s Voice”.
Her party, Trinamool Congress, cited the death of Tojammel Sheikh in Murshidabad as another example of people dying due to the anxiety over the Special Intensive Revision of the electoral rolls in West Bengal.
Mamata, herself, accused the EC of torturing the people of West Bengal in an unprecedented manner. “More than 130 persons have died because of your tortures,” she hit out at the EC.
“(The) Election Commission of India is celebrating National Voters' Day today, and what a tragic farce that is! The Commission – working as His Master's Voice – is busy now in snatching away people's voting rights, and they have the temerity to celebrate Voters' Day! I am deeply distressed and disturbed by their conduct today,” said the chief minister.
She alleged that instead of complying with the Supreme Court's verdict and working as per rules and norms to provide and protect the democratic voting rights of people, the EC was finding newer and newer pretexts in the name of logical discrepancy to harass the people and try to deny them and take away from them their electoral rights.
The EC struck off over 58 lakh voters and cut down the size of the electorate from 7.66 crore at the beginning of the year to 7.08 crore in the draft list.
In the second phase of the SIR, which started on December 27, 1.67 crore voters under scrutiny are being summoned for hearings, including 1.25 crore flagged for “logical discrepancies” and 31 lakh whose current electoral roll details did not match or link to the records from the 2002 voter list.
"Can you summon-- the way you are doing-- persons above 85, 90, 95 years of age, and even physically challenged persons to physically appear before you to prove their credentials? The stress caused by this kind of illegal pressure is leading to a series of suicides and deaths, and yet you are continuing to do this at the behest of your political masters," Mamata wrote on X.